Peanut Butter Facts!
Whether you like it chunky or creamy, slathered with jam or kept pure and original, peanut butter is loved around the world by millions of people. This beloved sticky, nutty and buttery paste is the center of attention during the month of November as it is Peanut Butter Lovers' Month. What better way to celebrate this splendid treat than to give you a few fun facts about it:
November is the time to glorify the nut butter. Speaking of glory, the world’s largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich was weighed at 610 KG (1,342 pounds); wouldn’t that be easy to share with a few friends?
Wouldn’t it be a shame, though, if one of your dear friends had a peanut allergy? Unfortunately, peanuts are one of the most common food allergens in the world.
Carrying on with that grave note, most commercial peanut butter in our modern world is a secret harbor of life-threatening trans-fat. Despite the fact that the nutritional facts on most jars have the amount of the lipid registered as 0g, hydrogenated vegetable oils –a source of trans-fat- are in most ingredients lists.
Another malicious component of mainstream peanut butters is palm oil, and its presence could mean that the company supplying us with the seductive snack cuts down forests to start palm plantations to harvest the oil from. However, consumer awareness is slowly changing the last two facts by obliging producers to resort to natural, healthy, and ecologically responsible ways to provide us with peanut butter.
Hashim Dabbas