Is there a low fat peanut? Is there a fat removal machine that I need to step into somewhere?
In: Chemistry
I’m also curious about this same question but for regular cooking oil. There is a product in my market that is regular vegetable oil but is marketed as having less calories. If you measure the weight of the oil versus another regular oil, the calories are the same, but per serving calories are less. The only ingredients are the oil and emulsifier. Using emulsifier to incorporate.. air into the oil for less actual oil per volume? Similar to whipped butter? It’s confusing as it looks just like normal oil.
Good god, so much disinformation here. I used to work for the company that made Skippy peanut butter. In the US, peanut butter has a standard of identity that says that peanut butter has to have at least 90% peanuts, can have sugar and/or honey, salt, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil for stability (prevents oil separation).
Reduced fat has only 60% peanuts, so the natural fat in the other 30% of peanuts is gone from the product. It is replaced by a lot of stuff that makes texture and flavor palatable (arguably). Overall, the fat is reduced. The fat in the peanut is the same, just fewer peanuts in the jar.
A little off topic but, There is good Adam Ruins Everything about this exactly.
Basically fat provides volume and fullness and also taste. If they reduce fat out of a 32 Oz jar, they have to make up for that 32 Oz and they do it by adding something cheaper (to maintain profit), which is usually sugar, in any form, be it cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
That’s why it’s more harmful to health. And sugar causes obesity.
And vegan cakes are Sweet as fuck.
Some commercial peanut butter may have added oils though there is no reason to add oil to freshly ground peanuts. Many commercial peanut butters have added sugar.
Peanuts have a high fat content. Peanut butter has a high fat content. Low fat peanut butter often contains added sugar to enhance the flavor, usually high fructose corn sugars.
Some markets (*WinCo in my area*) have machines in their bulk produce section to turn whole peanuts into freshly ground peanut butter. This type of peanut butter may separate into an oil layer that can be stirred back into the mixture. The user can control the smoothness of the mixture by removing a portion of the oil before stirring it back in.
I question the claim that peanut butter is made by adding oils to the residue from peanut oil extraction. It would be much cheaper to stop the extraction process while the ground peanuts are still at a useful consistency. It is my understanding that peanuts from which the majority of the oil has been extracted are used as animal feed.
Now ELI5 to me: why?!
Generally speaking they create the product by substituting other nonfat ingredients for the fat, for example low fat peanut butter can have corn surup instead of fat, which can have roughly the same texture. Ingredients like inulin (not insulin) are a naturally occurring food fiber that has few calories but gives the feeling of being full and can also substitute for fat, this is often used in nut-flavored bars. These substitutions are not necessarily good for you and the fat that occurs in peanut butter is not necessarily bad for you, but many consumers will buy anything labeled “low fat” or “reduced fat” and think it is better for you, and as long as there is a market for it, food producers will produce it.
Have you never seen peanut butter separate with the oil on top?
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Jiff low fat peanut butter replaces oil (needed to keep the butter spreadable) with corn syrup, and replaces some of the peanuts with nearly fat free pea protein. It’s 60 percent peanuts! Good enough for government work.
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