Why You Should Stop Stirring Peanut Butter
Peanut butter has long been a popular food product in the United States. However, a recent rise in the proliferation of "natural" peanut butter, where the ground peanuts and oils can separate and require re-mixing, has led many consumers to bemoan having to perform manual labor for their PB&Js. What if there was a way to enjoy those natural products without the arm workout?
Tell Me Best says that shoppers in the U.S. spend about $800 million each year and make more than a billion pounds of peanut butter part of their diets. Compare that to consumption in other places like Europe, where the average person consumes less than a tablespoon each year, according to HuffPost. However, the market has been somewhat segmented between "natural" and traditional blends.
While the National Peanut Board says the main difference between natural and traditional peanut butter is in the simplicity of the ingredients, consumers know the practical difference is in how much work you have to do to enjoy the product. Now, there's a clever hack that can mean some rest for your biceps.
Work smarter, not harder
Britannica says the work of those like Issac Newton and Albert Einstein was indispensable in developing our understanding of the ally you should enlist when it comes to your peanut butter stock: gravity.
This tip is actually so simple, it will leave you feeling nutty for never having thought of it before. Taste of Home says you should simply store your natural peanut butter upside down. That's right, put it on your shelf lid-side down. That way, the oil will disperse throughout the peanut mash as those elements separate.
When you go to use the product and turn it back over, the mixing process will continue. You might still have to do some stirring to reach the consistency you prefer, but you will expend fewer calories in the process. This trick works regardless of which peanut butter brand you have in your pantry.
The Peanut Institute says that no matter how you stir it, peanut butter's nutritional value "remains largely the same." As part of a healthy diet, the unsaturated fats in peanut butter can potentially reduce the risk of disease and contribute to your protein intake. With this storage trick, your days of burning more calories than you consume just to make a PB&J are over.