Tag: peanut butter

Teddie Organic Peanut Butter – Grown in USA?

I’m very careful when I buy nut products, always checking to find the country of origin. A lot of nuts (organic and conventional) like cashews are grown in Asia and I rather spend a little more and buy nuts labeled as grown in the USA.

Peanuts are no exception.

Recently, I have been learning that conventional peanuts are very bad for us. A lot of pesticides are used when growing conventional peanuts, and there is even talk of GMO peanuts being grown to help with allergies. Ugh.

So, we’ve been eating almond butter, which is yummy. I’ve been buying Trader Joe’s almond butter. It’s not organic, but it’s delicious with no added oils or salt.

This week Teddie brand organic peanut butter was on sale for $3.99.

Teddie organic peanut butter front label

I love Teddie peanut butter; it tastes fresh and delicious, and it’s offered in glass containers. A lot of peanut butter is sold in plastic.

Funny, I distinctly remember disliking Teddie peanut butter as a child, it didn’t taste like the normal salt/sugar-laden Skippy and Jif because it was “all natural” – probably the ONLY all natural peanut butter available at that time. I remember my mom buying it in a large tub.

Anyway, Teddie peanut butter is made by a local company here in Massachusetts and the label for their regular natural peanut butter states that the peanuts have been grown in the USA. All good, right?

Teddie organic peanut butter back label does not state country of origin

Well the label on their organic peanut butter is missing any information on country of origin. I checked their web site, and they state:

We are proud to note that our products are market leaders in the areas we serve. Teddie Old Fashioned Peanut Butter, the Number 1 selling natural peanut butter in the Northeast, contains 100% fresh roasted and ground, USA grown peanuts providing the most wholesome peanut butter available.

It made me curious that they didn’t specifically state that “all their peanut butter…” so I phoned Leavitt Corp this morning and she was very adamant that ALL their products were made with peanuts grown in the USA.

After I hung up, I was happy, but then my paranoia set in again. Why didn’t their organic peanut butter label state USA grown? What if the person I spoke to didn’t really know, and was only stating what she thought was fact?

I viewed their web site again, and noticed the caption at the top left of their peanut butter page:

For over 100 years, we at Leavitt Corp, purveyors of Teddie peanut butter, have devoted ourselves to providing our customers with premium peanut butter made from only the highest grade USA grown peanuts that will consistently deliver great taste. Nothing less.

That makes me feel a lot better, but I still wonder about their organic label.

For now, I only purchased one jar of Teddie organic peanut butter.

We’ll continue to use peanut butter once in awhile, but I think we’ll also concentrate on other nut butters, like almond butter, hazelnut butter, sunflower butter.

I need to find a way to make almond butter at home. I tried once in my food processor, and it was a failure. More googling is needed, but maybe I need to roast the almonds prior to grinding.

Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios – What’s Next General Mills?

Cheerios used to be thought of as one of the “good” cereals, but over the years, General Mills has capitalized on the Cheerios name to produce UN-healthier, alternative flavors like Dulce de Leche Cheerios and Chocolate Cheerios. And now Peanut Butter is part of the Cheerios flavor family!

Cheerios Multi-Grain Peanut Butter cereal ingredients:

Whole Grain Corn, Sugar, Peanut Butter (peanuts, monoglycerides), Whole Grain Oats, Whole Grain Sorghum, Whole Grain Barley, Whole Grain Rice, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Salt, Canola and/or Rice Bran Oil, Peanut Oil, Color Added, Vitamin E, and BHT. Vitamins and Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Zinc and Iron (Mineral Nutrients), Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate), a B Vitamin (Niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), a B Vitamin (Folic Acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3

Even though there are a lot of whole grains on the list, one small serving of Peanut Butter Cheerios offers only a paltry 2g of fiber, along with 9g of sugar (sugar, corn syrup & dextrose.)

No, 9 grams isn’t earth shattering, but do you know how small a serving of 3/4 cup is? Pretty small. My guess is, most consumers will go for 2 servings, which brings the sugar up to 18 grams.

It’s even sadder that regular Cheerios now has ingredients like “modified corn starch” and “wheat starch” – Do you think these highly-processed ingredients were part of the package years ago when Cheerios were first produced? I doubt it.

Consumers don’t realize that highly processed grains (like in commercial cereals) do not offer the same qualities and benefits as fresh whole grains. Plus, there’s the issue of GMO corn and soy, along with sugars, unnecessary oils & emulsifiers (monoglycerides), preservatives, and colors.

And why all the extra added vitamins?

I’m so sick of Big Food adding a few synthetic vitamins and declaring their product a health food. (WhoNu, anyone?)

Let’s just keep the vitamins in our fruits and vegetables, and stop the sneaky marketing!

BEWARE! Peanut Allergies

And one more BIG strike against General Mills is that this is going to cause a lot of peanut allergy issues due to the similarity to regular cheerios!

It’s especially disconcerting since the packaging for both the multi-grain peanut butter and plain multi-grain look very similar. Plus the actual cereal pieces are virtually identical as well.

multi-grain peanut butter cheerios multi-grain cheerios

It’s been reported that a parent accidentally brought home a box of the peanut butter cereal and thankfully his wife caught the error before serving it to their allergic child.

Links:

So What’s Next General Mills?

So what’s next General Mills? Will you come out with Birthday Cake flavored Cheerios? How about Bacon flavored Cheerios?

Maybe someday, consumers will stop falling for Big Food’s cute clever marketing, but then what would Big Pharma do if the world was free of obesity, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure?

Whole Grain Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Muffins

UPDATED 2011-07-14

This recipe is inspired by the “Peanut Butter Bread” recipe found in Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook: The Best Recipes from Southampton’s Favorite Bakery.

whole grain peanut butter dark chocolate muffins

I altered the sugar quantity, added dark chocolate & sunflowers, and of course replaced the white flour with whole grains (whole wheat and barley flours).

Continue reading “Whole Grain Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Muffins”

Choosy Mothers DON’T Choose Jif

Do these ingredients look like something a “choosy” mom would choose for her family!?

Ingredients:
MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT.

I think a better slogan would be Mom’s who don’t read labels choose Jif!

Sugar? Hydrogenated oils? Mono and diglycerides? Yuck. Soy and rapeseed oils are two the worst oils to consume non-organically, because chances are, they were created from Genetically Modified plants. Plus, the way these oils are processed is unhealthy.

jif peanut butter nutritional facts

Peanut butter (or any natural nut butter) can certainly be a part of a healthy clean-eating lifestyle, as long a you choose a natural, organic (if possible) peanut butter without added sugar. It’s even better to find one without added salt.

I have purchased Teddie brand organic and non organic. I love the chunky!

I also find the organic store brands are more economical. Nature’s Promise from Stop & Shop, Nature’s Place from Hannaford, and 365 brand from Whole Foods are three that I have purchased.

Be choosy and choose the RIGHT peanut butter, or almond butter, or cashew butter. There’s so many wonderful butters to choose!