Will Peanut Butter Make You Fat?

Critics point out that peanut butter is rich is fat that could lead to obesity and a host of diseases. How true is this?

Admittedly, most nuts and nut butters are loaded with fat. Four-point five tablespoons of peanut butter will give you a whooping 422 calories. A tablespoon has 100 calories.

But don't let the fear of fat spoil your appetite. The good news is that the fat in many nuts - including peanut butter - is largely monosaturated. That's the kind that cleans your blood of cholesterol.

Furthermore, "defatted" roasted peanuts are now available for those who value their waistline. This variety, invented by Department of Agriculture researcher Joseph Pominski, has fewer calories than the regular oil-roasted brands.

Not all supermarkets, however, carry the defatted version. For one, US regulations state that peanut butter must be made up of 90 percent peanuts. Replacing the peanut oil with something less fattening may appeal to dieters and the health-conscious, but the concoction wouldn't taste like peanut butter at all.

So moderation is in order, especially if you're concerned about those extra pounds. Many processed brands are also high in sugar and salt so read the labels before purchasing a product.

"More than 80 percent of the fat in peanut oil is unsaturated, a kind that's known not to raise blood cholesterol levels. All the same, peanut oil has received considerable scrutiny since researchers in 1970 concluded it somehow caused cholesterol to build up on artery walls. As it turned out, the researchers seem to have misinterpreted the nature of the artery damage they'd seen," explained Mary Roach in Hippocrates magazine.

If you don't consume the jar of peanut butter you bought, there's no need to worry. Unopened jars can last up to a year in a cool, dry place according to Janet Bailey in Keeping Food Fresh. Refrigeration extends the shelf life of peanut butter. But before keeping yours in the fridge, use a good spoon to mix the peanut oil in natural products.

Indeed, all appears well with peanut butter - until the aflatoxin scare witch rocked the United States and some Asian countries a few years ago. After reading about it in the newspapers, my world and those of other passionate peanut butter lovers suddenly came tumbling down.

Is there sufficient reason to be concerned about this aspect? Should we abandon our love for the gooey stuff in view of published reports that some brands contain high levels of aflatoxin - a possible carcinogen? Find out in the third part of this series.

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