I’m a huge fun of peanut butter, and more so almond butter! I love the taste so much, I admit to being guilty of eating it straight out of the jar on occasion. That being said, I typically won’t eat Skippy, Jif, or any of the other popular brands of peanut butter. Why? My aunt was the one to enlighten me about the downside of these popular peanut brands.

Peanut oil comes from peanuts, and is produced by the process of making peanut butter. A lot of companies remove the peanut oil and sell it separately because it’s very expensive. That means you can wave goodbye to the healthy fats in peanut oil! When they remove the peanut oil, they add partially hydrogenated oils to replace it which are unhealthy fats instead. Peanut oil contains things like Vitamin E, essential fatty acids, and phytosterols which get rid of free radicals in the blood. The healthy fats in peanut oil are linked to healthy brain development. Personally, I want to keep those benefits in my peanut butter.

That is why I don’t like to eat the brands of peanut butter that remove peanut oil, I go for the natural kinds. Not only do the leading brands remove this oil, but they typically add sugar as well! Peanut butter is a great source of protein and healthy fats… and should always contain peanut oil I think!