I always used to wonder “is peanut butter healthy?” I mean I’d have it in my lunch all the time, and I was told to it eat before I ate my snack. So my mom must have thought peanut butter is healthy.
But she didn’t buy every brand of peanut butter. She used to tell me that Peter Pan Peanut Butter had too much sugar, so I had to pick JIF or the store brand. But now that I’m older, I wonder “Is Peanut Butter Healthy?”
Peanut Butter Saves Starving Children
Did you know that if you mix a grain (wheat, corn, rice, oats and barley) with a legume (beans, peas, peanuts, soybeans) and you get a complete set of amino acids? I guess if you are talking about a sandwhich, you can now stop asking yourself “is peanut butter healthy?”
For vegetarians, peanut butter on bread is a perfect meal.
Milton Tectonidis, a Paris-based nutrition specialist for Médecins Sans Frontières, told the International Herald Tribune during Niger’s 2005 food crisis that “Plumpy’nut (a healthy peanut butter) can restore a starving baby whose skin sags over tiny bones to normal roundness in two to four weeks. This product, it’s beyond opinion, It’s documented; it’s scientific fact. We’ve seen it working. With this one product, we can treat three-quarters of children on an outpatient basis.”
Tectonidis and others have been revolutionizing malnourished care with their foil packet filled with peanut butter and milk. The packets were unbelievable help during the Darfur situation in Sudan.
Last year, the UN’s World Health Organization and UNICEF declared Project Peanut Butter, a therapeutic feeding program for starving children in Malawi and Sierra Leone, as “the most effective method for treating severely malnourished children the world over.”
A similar program has been started in the Himalayas by a doctor turned philanthropist, Mark Arnoldy. After getting sick over a peanut allergy, it dawned on Arnoldy that what killed him could save others.
Studying peanut butter production with Meds and Foods for Kids in Haiti, Arnoldy brought the project to the group Himalayan Health Care. Their only obstacle to full production is the cost. And it is that which Mark Arnoldy dedicates his time.
What’s In Peanut Butter?
Hopefully you’re buying organic or natural peanut butter that contains only peanuts (and sometimes a little salt). If not switch immediately – otherwise you’re just eating peanut flavored Crisco.
Find Out Why Peanuts Are Healthy
How To Make Peanut Butter
- Buy Peanuts
- Open Peanuts
- Get Out Blender or Food Processor
- Put Peanuts in Blender or Food Processor
- Blend in little spurts until you get desired consistency
- Turn off Blender
- Unplug Blender
- Use a spatula to remove peanut butter from blender
That’s how to make peanut butter.