Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Nut Butter Project

My love of Reduced Fat Crunchy Skippy Peanut Butter is not a secret. I've been fairly honest with you about my obsession. I have told you about my trials and tribulations to find it in grocery stores. It's been the best part of my morning for more than two years.

I love this stuff.

Until Dr. Oz and Oprah ruined it for me, that is.

I happened to catch an old episode of Oprah during an early morning workout session (OWN network, 7 a.m.) in which Ms. O had Dr. Oz as a a guest. Dr. Oz was wearing scrubs. I'm not sure why. It's not like he had surgery immediately before or after the taping, I suspect. But I digress.

Dr. Oz was working with an Oprah viewer who was 50 lbs. overweight and sleeping 18 hours a day. As part of the intervention/makeover/life change, Dr. Oz and a medical pal went to this woman's house to get her fridge and pantry in shape. They made two piles: stuff that could stay and stuff that had to go. In the stay pile? The usual suspects. Real food. Nothing processed or full of chemicals. If the label listed a form of sugar (high fructose corn syrup, etc.), salt, partially hydrogenated anything, salt in the first five ingredients, it got tossed.

They pulled out a tub of Country Crock spread and read the list. Up top was partially hydrogenated something. The good doctor explained that this was fake food. Not really food at all. It was lab created and our bodies don't know how to process it. And because our bodies don't know how to process it, it clogs our arteries.

Our bodies have been ingesting and processing butter for thousands of years. Our plumbing/wiring/mechanical systems know what to do with butter. The lesson? A little butter is better than any fake food.

They moved on to peanut butter. Jif, to be exact. You guessed it. Partially hydrogenated.

So I was compelled to read my label. It wasn't good. Sugar. Hydrogenated oil. Lots of chemicals.

Crapola.

Now I'm on a mission to find something better. In my fridge right now I have a sunflower nut butter and an unsalted cashew butter. I like the first better than the second, but neither is as good as Skippy.

But I'm determined. The first step is to mix 1/2 Skippy with 1/2 of sunflower butter. It's not great, but I'm going to give my taste buds some time to adjust to the decreased sweetness and saltiness.

Oh, and I'm adding a nibble of Nutella, too. A spoonful of sugar, as they say.


5 comments:

GaryAllanFan said...

Have you seen that powdered Peanut Butter PB2? IMO it sounds disgusting and I haven't tried but I've been told it isn't bad. Maybe you should try it and give us a review. ;)

HR GIRL said...

Parker Farms Natural Peanut Butter. Comes in creamy and crunchy. Find it at Woodman's.

Anonymous said...

I've tried pb2 it isn't bad ... you mix it with water and it just tastes like ground peanuts. It will in no way fill the peanut butter craving. It may be worth a try if you're so inclined but that's my take on it. -Amber.

Anonymous said...

I've tried pb2 it isn't bad ... you mix it with water and it just tastes like ground peanuts. It will in no way fill the peanut butter craving. It may be worth a try if you're so inclined but that's my take on it. -Amber.

Anonymous said...

I've tried pb2 it isn't bad ... you mix it with water and it just tastes like ground peanuts. It will in no way fill the peanut butter craving. It may be worth a try if you're so inclined but that's my take on it. -Amber.