Peabutter
I recently posted about Peanut Butter Bans in schools. While regular readers know that I take a moderate stance on peanut bans, in the post linked above I did review the common reasons that parents of non-allergic children give to support why peanuts bans do not make sense. In reviewing whether peanut butter was the only thing many kids like and whether it is truly the most economical source of spreadable protein, I presented Peabutter as an alternative.
This week I tried Peabutter and I am going to feature it in a debut section of product reviews that we'll have on NoPeanuts.
In reviewing food products I will review taste, texture, price, ingredients.
Taste: The taste was okay. At the risk of sounding like a sommelier, the initial taste is quite pleasant and almost nutty. From there though I found the pea aftertaste to be strong ... not surprising I suppose! I did not find this to replace the Adams peanut butter of days gone by.
Texture: The texture was similar to that of the more highly-processed creamy peanut butter products which are very common. It was a little too creamy for my liking but I was an Adams fan ... all natural, nothing but peanuts.
Price: The price of Peabutter was fine ... it was only about 50 cents more than peanut butter.
Ingredients: As for the ingredients, I preferred Adams because it was all natural. Peabutter has icing sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil on its ingredients list. To be fair, these ingredients are also in many generic creamy peanut butters but that was also the reason I did not eat those products. I ate all-natural peanut butter with a single ingredient: peanuts! We typically avoid products that have 'hydrogenated' or 'icing sugar' on the label.
Overall: If your family likes regular creamy peanut butter then Peabutter would probably work. Many people have given this product a good review online but I am not sure it is the right peanut butter substitute for people who enjoy all-natural peanut butters. I would be unlikely to purchase it again.
I will try Sunbutter, though I notice that there is added sugar in that product as well. I'll try it with an open mind as I really think these are great product alternatives for families with children who have peanut allergy. I encourage you to try them to make up your own mind ... I am just passing along my own (perhaps dissenting) opinion.
I think the solution for me purely from a product perspective is almond butter, though I am terrified to eat it! We have one daughter with anaphylaxis to peanut and a 4 month old daughter who has signs of eczema and thus is at risk of a peanut allergy of her own.
Maybe in 10 years I can eat almond butter but not today. I had big hopes for Peabutter!
5 comments:
My 3.5 yo loves peabutter, and turns up his nose at sunbutter.
There used to be a note on the peabutter website that explained that he's using up his old labels. He says that he's found another way around the hydrogenated fats, but had thousands of labels to use up before he could print up new ones.
He's got the accurate nutrition info/contents up on his website.
We got some Trader Joe's sunflower seed butter on DH's last trip to the US -- it's the best substitute for peanut butter that we've found so far for our palates. Now I've just got to figure out how to get it regularly. I only wish it came in a crunchy version.
Very cool ... thanks for the heads up. The removal of the hydrogenated oil makes me feel better ... the sugar is not as much of an issue in the big scheme of things. As I noted in my post, I am also not surprised that kids like it. That is interesting.
I will try Sunbutter and I'll pick up some sunflower see butter from Trader Joe's on my next trip Stateside.
Thanks again! NP.
I agree with you that products on the market contain ingredients which are not healthy for us. We are constantly being fooled by marketing. So now we have a peanut butter alternative for those with peanut allergies. Unfortunately this product contains a combination of oils which may not be the best choice for our children. One of the ingredients of concern is rapeseed oil. Unbelievably humans and animals could not consume rapeseed oil for centuries, as it had high erucic acid content. However rapeseed oil has been genetically modified to cheap varieties containing low erucic acid for manufacturing companies. This oil has a strong tendency to oxidation and affects the respiratory system. For this reason rapeseed was used in World War II to make mustard gas. It seems a little too weird for Peabutter to be marketed for children with anaphylaxis predispositions with such an alarming ingredient. The question goes back to one of your original entries on whether genetically engineered products are safe? If this isn't enough Peabutter is trying to sell itself through inspiring children's taste buds using icing sugar.
Several years ago, peabutter won an award with The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributers.
My son is allergic to peas. But, we really like the Sunbutter!
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