Recently at a fitness expo in Melbourne, a beautiful but unfortunate young girl tried to sell my partner powdered peanut butter. Boy was she in for a treat!
“Where is the fat?” he asked, confused. “We take the fat out so it’s 85% less fat calories” she replied enthusiastically despite his look of horror.
She then described how amazing the powder is in smoothies and balls and that you can enjoy a (very highly-priced!) peanut butter without all the fat. “Then what’s the point?” he asked slightly annoyed by now. Dumbfounded she replied “peanut butter flavour, without the fat”. “And why is there added salt and sugar?” he asked. In response, she continued on about how good it tasted.
Afterwards, he asked me incensed “WHY?!?” “Because people still believe fat will make them fat” I replied trying to calm him.
And ‘why’ is a really good question to ask. Why would you take out the fat and replace it with additives that don’t belong in a jar of peanut butter???
As our intake of fat has decreased and our intake of sugar has rapidly increased so have rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and the list goes on. David Gillespie, in his book ‘Sweet Poison’, says ‘If I were inclined to be mischievous with statistics, I could easily justify a message that not eating fat made you twice as fat”.
Australia is considered one of the fattest nations in the developed world with the prevalence of obesity doubling in the last 20 years. 14 million Australians are overweight or obese with over 5 million with a BMI greater than 30. Obesity has taken over smoking as the leading cause of premature death and is fast becoming the single biggest threat to public health in Australia. By 2025 80% of Australian adults will be obese as well as a third of our children.
Fat keeps us full and satiated. Eating fat allows a feedback mechanism to kick in which tells our hypothalamus we are full and to stop eating. If it is removed we need to consume more food to feel full. Fat also serves to regulate our hormones, provide energy, and fuel and feed our cells keeping them healthy.
Powdered peanut butter is not a whole real food. The peanut contains all the nutrients that nature intended – fat, protein and vitamins. When we remove the fats we are left with very low nutritional content. As with most low-fat foods, they have to add salt and sugar just to make it taste ok. I know I would rather just have the fat! Keep in mind there are even better choices than peanut butter: almond butter has more fibre, more iron, is fatter and more calcium. Make sure you check your ingredients list when purchasing peanut butter. It should only contain peanuts!