Nutty for Nut Butters

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nut-butters

Your choices in nut butters are a lot more interesting these days; no longer are creamy and crunchy peanut butter your only options. In the past six months, 28 percent of consumers said they had purchased spreads made from almonds, cashews, or other nuts or seeds, according to Mintel, a market research firm.

One reason for the interest is that people tend to assume that the other butters are a better source of filling protein than pedestrian peanut varieties. But they’re not. Two tablespoons of peanut butter have 7 grams of protein, the same-sized serving of cashew or almond butter has 4 grams or 7 grams, respectively.

Are there other nutritional reasons to step out of your culinary comfort zone when it comes to nut butters? Absolutely. All nuts (and peanuts, which are legumes) have similar amounts of calories and fat, but each one has a different health benefit.

Cashews, for instance, have more copper—which supports the immune system—than other nuts. One-fourth cup of whole cashews provides about 38 percent of the mineral you should get per day.

Almonds are rich in vitamin E, a potent antioxidant that helps protect the body from the type of cell damage that could lead to cancer and heart disease. They’re also a decent source of bone-strengthening calcium. Just 2 tablespoons of almond butter provide 8 percent of your daily need.

A Long and Nutty Life

Research supports making any type of nut a regular part of your diet. In a study of almost 120,000 men and women, those who ate about an ounce of nuts every day were 20 percent less likely to die of any cause during the 30-year study period—and 29 percent and 11 percent less likely to die from heart disease and cancer, respectively— compared with people who didn’t eat nuts. Other research has linked nut consumption with a lower risk of type  2 diabetes and obesity.

What’s more, the fat in nuts is mostly the healthy kind. “The unsaturated fatty acids in nuts lower inflammation and reduce LDL [bad] cholesterol, which is beneficial in preventing heart disease,” says Ying Bao, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

They supply antioxidants that may help reduce cancer risk. And they provide nutrients that boost heart health, such as cholesterol- lowering fiber, potassium, which helps control blood pressure, and arginine, an amino acid that helps your body make nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes blood vessels. “The nutrients work together, enhancing the benefits of each.”

Some research has concluded that nuts and nut butters offer similar benefits. But a study from Maastricht University in the Netherlands that looked at peanuts and nuts separately from peanut butter found that nut intake was linked with lower mortality but that eating peanut butter wasn’t.

The study said that might have been because of the sodium and artery-clogging trans fat content of the Dutch peanut butter. A high calorie count—about 160 to 200 per ounce—is the one drawback of nuts. And in butter form, it’s easy to spread or spoon on more than you should.

But nuts help you feel full, and if you stick with the recommended 1½ ounces of nuts or 2 to 3 tablespoons of nut butter per day, you’ll get the benefits without too many calories.

Alternative nut butters can often replace the “P” in a PB&J sandwich for people allergic to peanuts. You should check with your doctor, but “not everyone with a peanut allergy is allergic to tree nuts, and they often can be safely brought into a peanut-free school,” says Todd D. Green, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.

Of the one-third of U.S. schools that restrict the type of food that can be brought in, 97 percent prohibit peanuts, according to the School Nutrition Association.

But 60 percent allow other nuts. Read nut-butter labels carefully. If a product contains peanuts, the Food and Drug Administration requires the manufacturer to note it on the label. You may also see a warning such as “may contain peanuts” or “produced in a facility that processes peanuts.”

We Crunched the Nut Numbers

To see whether there were considerable differences among brands, Consumer Reports evaluated a dozen almond and cashew spreads for nutrition, taste, and price. The two types were similar in calories and fat, but sodium and protein varied.

And the best ones had the fewest ingredients and tasted just like the nuts themselves. Some had a consistency that was somewhat runny and thin. Certain nut butters separate, so you have to stir before you spread.

To prevent that separation and create a creamy texture, some manufacturers add hydrogenated vegetable oil, or palm or palm fruit oil. These are mostly saturated fats that keep the butter together because they’re solid at room temperature.

Six of the butters we tested have one of those oils. The amount was small, but too much saturated fat can be bad for your heart.

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