The pasty emulsified super sweet peanut butter is nasty. I guess I just didnt grow up eating that stuff so I'm not desensitized to it (did have peanut butter a few times, but it was a normal one. Tastes like peanuts and slightly salty). But it tastes like vaguely sweet paste and the texture is horrid. It made me gag the first time I had it because I was like "Oh peanut butter? I like that stuff."
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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...are non-US peanut butters less viscous?
Non-US peanut butters typically have only one ingredient (peanuts) and therefore you get peanut oil separating out that needs to be stirred in. American peanut butter (at least the 'popular' brands) tend to be so full of preservatives and shit that they hold their state.
Here's the full list of ingredients for Jif:
Made from Roasted Peanuts and Sugar, Contains 2% or Less of: Molasses, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed and Soybean), Mono and Diglycerides, Salt.
https://www.foodsco.net/p/jif-creamy-peanut-butter/0005150024191
It's not just peanuts but it's not really "preservatives and shit" either.
The vegetable oils are saturated fats, which will mix with the peanut oil, but solidify at room temperature. That and the sugar are doing the leg work on keeping the peanut butter from separating. So yeah, saturated fats and sugar are unhealthy additives specifically for preserving the peanut butter. What exactly is your definition of a preservative?
Preservative refers to a substance that inhibits spoilage, decay, discoloration or other drops in quality.
It's one way to increase shelf life.
A stabilizer isn't a preservative because oil separation doesn't impact quality, shelf life or anything like that.
Peanuts already have saturated fat, the vegetable oils are better on that than the peanuts.
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it's not the preservatives, it's the hydrogenated oils that are added - basically they substitute some of the peanut oil that would separate out for oils that won't separate (and stay hard, like a butter or like margarine)
even the "healthy" no-stir peanut butters do this
lots of US peanut butters are "no-stir" by substituting some of the oil with basically a margarine-like fat (solid, hydrogenated oils replace some of the peanut oil so that the oil never separates and needs to be stirred in again)
If you use normal peanut butter, here are some tips I've found:
- turn the peanut butter jar upside down so the lid is at the bottom where the solid peanut butter collects, and the oil collects at the "top" (which is now the bottom of the jar). This means when you open the jar and stir it, the oil is already at the bottom and you don't have hard peanut butter stuck at the bottom that you can't ever get incorporated
- once you have opened a new jar and stirred it thoroughly, store the peanut butter in the fridge to make the peanut oil become more solid and doesn't separate as quickly, and in my experience this prevents having to stir it again for the rest of the life of the jar
But I also just eat the no-stir hydrogenated peanut butter now because it's extremely cheap and I'm unemployed.
That's the saddest part. It's cheaper to eat the manufactured factory food that they bugger around with than it is to eat healthy. What a cliff capitalism has led us to.
forever greatful the co-op by me has a fresh peanut butter machine, its only $2.99 a pound which isnt bad. At best the store brand US style PB is $2.50 a pound. Worth the 50cents imo, and It's even a bit cheaper I save 10% by bringing my own jar!
I have envy.
The cheap off-brand no-stir peanut butter I eat is $1.50 / lb ($0.35 / 100 g), the nice organic peanut butter I like to buy is $7.65 / lb ($1.69 / 100 g)
I could probably make my own peanut butter at home (I have a Vitamix), but I don't know where I would buy cheap peanuts.
Either way, I enjoy the taste of the cheap, no-stir peanut butter (I was raised on stuff like this), and I don't really understand or appreciate whatever health impact it may or may not have to eat the cheap peanut butter vs the more expensive one - whereas I very much do appreciate the economic cost of the higher peanut butter and that immediate effect on my grocery bill.
I guess it's better than never being able to afford peanut butter? I sort of have a renewed respect for mass produced / factory foods that make food more financially accessible.
I eat pasta that is fortified because the cheap pasta has extra vitamins added, there are some good things about this even if the pasta isn't as tasty as the more expensive brands.
It's all the filler. Because it's there. And the mass production, sure.
The problem is that much of what Spain sells as peanut butter is built around the European expectation:
-
simpler ingredients
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fewer sweeteners
-
“natural” separation accepted as normal
The EU keeps strict maximum levels for contaminants in foods, including aflatoxins. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 sets tight contaminant limits, and the EU’s own 2023 summary notes that maximum levels are set at strict levels considered reasonably achievable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aflatoxin
Aflatoxins are various poisonous carcinogens and mutagens that are produced by certain molds, especially Aspergillus species such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.
Why do you call it "natural" separation lol
Gravity is a natural process. The oil is less dense.
And why ""
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When I left the US this was a BIG surprise for me
It's not "American brand" peanut butter. It's just bad peanut butter.
I buy an American-made peanut butter that I have to stir.
I 100% don’t care, my American junk peanut butter is delicious. That health food shit you have to stir is oily, greasy, often has weird dry spots and grit, no thanks. I’ll keep enjoying my smooth, sweet and satisfying American junk peanut butter with out shame
Even the ultra sweet stuff is 2-3g of sugar per serving so it’s still pretty healthy
I tried "natural" peanut butter a couple years ago and never looked back. The no-stir stuff I grew up on was suddenly far too sweet. Yeah, you have to stir it a bit, and the first time sucks. But it's worth it for me.
I don't get it.
Many US peanut butter manufacturers add emulsifiers and other chemicals into their peanut butter so that it remains homogenous.
The realization is that the person would be eating those emulsifiers, and some people have claimed that they have negative health consequences, which is probable, although I don't know if they do or not.
The FDA lets plenty of questionable stuff in food, so I wouldnt be surprised if theres questionable emulsifiers that are used sometimes. My main issue with those peanut butters is that the texture is like eating old toothpaste and the flavor is like your aunt's perfume at the funeral of the peanut :(
Emulsifiers gonna emulsify 🚬
How to inhale peanut butter to undo ~10yrs of smoking?
I was curious.
Apologies if you're actually quitting. My jocularity is quite weird.
This made me kinda queasy looking at it lmao.
I actually quit everything last year. I still get some cravings every now and then, but throw that onto the pile of consequences from my youth. Not the worst withdrawals I've experienced, but definitely was the hardest to fully quit.
Triple Flavor
Breath
WTF?
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Local grocery store has a machine where you can grind peanuts into fresh peanut butter on demand for about 10 cents more per ounce than the mass market stuff, and it's amazing.
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That's why just buying peanuts and a food processor is the way to go and just make the amount of peanut butter you need when you need it.
Fancy stores you can buy peanuts and run them through the machine that turns them into peanut butter.
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Emulsifiers? Our Peanut Butter is also too sweet.
I feel a lot of the big mass brand peanut butter is too sweet a lot of the less mainstream and even cheaper “off brand” peanut butter is less sweet at times. Unfortunately, do like my sweeter brands
Try "just peanuts" for a while, once you get used to it, you will find thé industrial stuff tasteless.
These generalizations are bordering on bigotry. There are plenty of "American brands" that are small town home-based businesses. I'm literally bought pickled okra and spicy sweet pickles yesterday at the Farmers market.
They stole the oil?
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