You probably don’t buy Jif brand peanut butter anyway, but what I saw at Costco today completely amazed me. It’s a new low in deceptive advertising. The boxes containing Jif Crunchy and Creamy Peanut Butter had this printed all over them:
Made with no partially hydrogenated oils!
So I was intrigued, since Jif is the lowest-common-denominator peanut butter that has always contained three lousy ingredients: refined salt, refined sugar, and hydrogenated fat. I thought to myself, “How exciting! Jif got rid of the rapeseed oil!”
So I picked up the product and read the label. It said, “Contains less than 2 percent fully hydrogenated oils (rapeseed).”
Unbelievable. They’re bragging that they don’t have PARTIALLY hydrogenated fats, because they have FULLY hydrogenated fats! I guess they’re hoping the moms who buy the peanut butter are dumb enough not to investigate fully.
Hydrogenated fats are when you heat the oil above 400 degrees and bombard it with extra hydrogen atoms. It’s rancid and toxic and solid—both in the can and in your blood stream. It’s an additive to peanut butter to keep the oil from separating—good for aesthetics and ease of use, terrible for nutrition. A fake food that your body has no idea what to do with. All your body can do is fight the free radicals clogging your bloodstream and damaging your cells—it can’t use that “food” for building, repair, or cleansing.
My suggestion: don’t buy Jif peanut butter.
I am SO glad that I am not the only (not)choosey Mom… I don’t chose jiff and havent for such a long time! I really don’t mind sticking my knife and taking a few extra moments to stir my peanut butter all in the name of good health!
It is horrid to me how the government sets labeling laws such as this one. That if the ingredient is less than a certain amount they can label it as ‘free’ even if it is in there… sad very sad.
I have been telling people for years now not to buy Jif or any peanut butter with hydrogenated oil in it. Most think i’m crazy and there is nothing wrong with it. I even have people tell me that they don’t like to buy natural peanut butter because they don’t like to look at all the oil from the separation, even when I tell them that is healthy oil and just stir it up. How lazy & stupid can you be!
If you have a health food store where you can buy fresh peanut butter, be sure to use it. You turn on the switch and you watch the peanut be ground. And it doesn’t separate.
Donna
Jif is just peanut flavored mayo anyway. We have gone to Whole Foods ground our own peanut butter from raw peanuts
and there has been no oil separation. Yet when we buy organic peanut butter in the jar, there is a ton of oil on the top that has to be stirred in, (what a little mess that is). My question is if what is in the jar is just pure peanuts why the oil, when what you grind yourself there is not?
I am a choosey mom and I have never choose Jiff and I never will!
so what peanut butter do you suggest, and no, I don’t buy Jif- we don’t have a healthfood store here
Smuckers peanut butter is just peanuts and salt, I guess you can use that one if you can’t get some from a health food store. But you could grind your own peanut butter from peanuts in your blendtec or food processor.
We stopped buying “loaded” peanut butter quite a while ago. I like the taste of Krema brand which just contains peanuts. I know I can get it from Meijer for $1.99 a jar (I’m in Indiana)…I’m not sure how far out Meijer stores go though. :)
A note I sent to Jiff today:
===========
Hello JIFF, and Yes, Real Moms (Choosy) MOMs do read ingredient labels
and research the deceptive ‘wording’ on ingredient labels. How can you
include any ingredient that does not promote Good Health to your main
consumer CHILDREN! I will SPREAD THE WORD (instead of spreading your
peanut butter) to everyone I meet about your product ingredients.
Consumption of hydrogenated oil has been linked with diabetes, coronary
disease, and obesity. I’m sure you are well aware of the vast research on
this basically ‘non food product called partially hydrogenated or fully
hydrogenated oil’ that our body doesn’t even recoginize what to do with it.
============
Thanks to everyone here for better suggestions for peanut butter. I plan to make my own peanut butter for my family! Thank you !
Wow! I never looked @ the label for Jif! I trusted it was okay since my mother used it!
I buy organic everythings & make most of my food from scratch… So I had NO idea.
But THX ladies! I will no longer buy Jif! & as a matter of fact I will be returning the jar I bought last week!
You may also want to watch for the terms “interesterified” oil, “high in stearic acid”, and “stearate-rich”. These all denote a process where a liquid and solid fat are mixed and then chemically altered through the exchange of portions of their molecules. This is to create a plastic like consistency with similar baking qualities to partially hydrogenated oils, but without creating trans fats (and without the saturated fat of a palm oil blend, which is the other solution to hydrogenated oils). Some sources I found state that the solid fat used in this process is fully hydrogenated oil.
Either way, it’s chemically altered fat.
From what I have read on the Internet fully hydrogenated oil does not contain trans fats and is generally considered better than partially hydrogenated, so I don’t think Jif is being deceptive. Also, stearic acid is converted to oleic acid in the body, which is not harmful, to my knowledge.
Please read below from bantransfat.com. By the way, I love Jiff! Oh, the shame…..
Is fully hydrogenated oil worse than partially hydrogenated oil?
No. In fact just the opposite is true. Fully hydrogenated oil does not contain trans fat! Partial hydrogenation is a process that rids an oil of its highly unsaturated fatty acid content and changes anywhere from 5-10 percent to 55 percent or more of the original fatty acids to trans fatty acids and a number of other unnatural fatty acids. Hydrogenation, when carried out in its totality, produces only saturated fatty acids; and a totally saturated oil has the consistency of a wax and is not appropriate for use in food except in very small amounts added with emulsifiers to food products such as peanut butter.
Let’s avoid partially AND fully hydrogenated fats and all other fake foods.
:-) Robyn
I dont really care about what is in the peanut butter, just so as long it tastes good. i used to hate peanut butter, but now i love to eat it, especially with Oreos!
Jif (peanut butter)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jif is a brand of peanut butter made by The J.M. Smucker Co., which purchased the brand from Procter & Gamble in 2001.[1
Jif….Smuckers….. all the same. Do your research.
Marsha, lighten up. There is a natural version of Smuckers that Leslee is referring to, but who cares? There is nothing wrong with Jiff.
Can you please explain this?
“I guess they’re hoping the moms who buy the peanut butter are dumb enough not to investigate fully.”
I would hardly call anyone dumb when you yourself haven’t investigated fully. FULLY hydrogenated oils are better for you than partially hydrogenated oils. You seem like your trying to empower yourself with anger and fear rather than finding the reality of the situation…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070429185023AA6sNL5
http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/faqs/f/hydrogenated.htm
I’m glad I took the time to look up hydrogenated oils because I found this Blog. It’s an eye opening for me. I bought a jar of Jif peanut butter as reference above to have at work to eat when I don’t have the time to eat like I should. A spoonful here or there would satisfy me. Upon reading this blog I noticed the transfat ingredient listed on the jar of peanut butter, I was curious about (rapseed), never heard of that before. As of today, that jar of peanut butter will be thrown away. Thanks goodness I did not opened it.
Okay ladies, the article is accurate based on the new FDA mandated food regulations. Jif(aka the J.M. Smucker company) revised there old formula for the peanut butter back when these laws came into effect. Prior, I remeber seeing that Jif had 10 grams of trans fat oils in the peanut butter, but since has removed all but less then 2%. This is not something to worry about at all!!! Nowhere can you “grind your own” or purchase organically grown PB that has the refinement and smoothness of Jif. The virginia grown peanuts used in the formula are delectable, moist, and soft and this is what gives such a great flavor to the peanut butter. Dont boycott Jif because of the partially hydrognetaed oils in it, enjoy it
LOL!!!
What is wrong with the People at Jif? Do they want to intentionally poison America?
I am a food science major at the University of Massachusetts.
Partial Hydrogenation produces harmful trans fatty acids,
but Full Hydrogenation only produces saturated fatty acids. Peanut butter with partially hydrogenated oil tastes better because it’s not as waxy, but Fully Hydrogenated has no health detriments.
Well I LOVE JIF! GO JIFFY PEANUT BUTTER
Thanks James and Happy Girl. The new formula in Jif is TOTALLY okay. I did my research!! I too will continue to eat Jif myself. My dogs get organic though.. go figure. Wheat bread rocks!
who knew peanut butter was such a controversial topic. You probably all ate at McDonald’s this week.
lmao @ bo yup thats prolly true!!!!
I would not buy anything from Smuckers, because even though their peanut butter may be ok, Their jams have high fructoe corn syrup, Not sugar. I don’t buy anything from them because of it.
Look in any store, and you most likley will find either Adams peanut butter or something just like it.
Nothing but peanuts and salt. also it would not hurt to write to these companies and tell them your not stupid and will not buy their products.