Peanut Butter

I have always heard that natural stuff was sooo much better for me than the regular stuff. And, since it's a staple in my diet, I figured I'd better choke up the extra $ so my arteries wouldn't clog... my heart explode... or whatever other doom and gloom might ensue. However, one day after finally making it through the door at Food Lion, there was a display of peanut butter right in front of me. The kiosk promised me "wicked savings"... and it was a lot less than I usually pay... but it was the "regular stuff". So, I decided that I'd finally evaluate for myself how "good" natural peanut butter was and flipped the jar over. I noticed that the regular peanut butter had 0mg of cholesterol... didn't seem to have a lot of salt and sugar... the first ingredient was, in fact, peanuts... so why was this sooo bad for me? I carried it back with me, expecting that it would all make sense when I compared it to the natural peanut butter... but no. Then, I figured that in order to be totally scientific about this (because that's necessary when grocery shopping), I should compare products within the same brand. Luckily, Skippy makes both (nutrition labels shown below... left- regular and right- natural).

Nutritionally... ho hum... about equal. The only major difference was in the ingredients- regular peanut butter contains hydrogenated vegetable oil whereas the natural peanut butter contains palm oil. Obviously, the former is better for you than the later... but, all the same, you probably don't need to worry about your arteries clogging and heart exploding because you ate "regular" peanut butter!