Benefits of Natural Peanut Butter
The benefits of natural peanut butter is why it is superior to every other type of peanut butter.
What is Natural Peanut Butter?
Natural peanut butter contains one or at most two ingredients: dry roasted peanuts or dry roasted peanuts and salt. If there is any other ingredient, such as sugar, monoglycerides or diglycerides, or molasses, it is not natural. Oil does not need to be added either since when you blend peanuts, they release their own oil. This holds true for other nuts as well – almond, walnut, and even macadamia nuts.
Benefits of Natural Peanut Butter
Peanut butter has what is known as “good fats” or “healthy fats”. One of these fats is oleic acid which improves your heart health. It helps to lower bad cholesterol (LDL) and blood pressure, and increase good cholesterol (HDL).
Oleic acid has also been shown to reduce the body’s insulin resistance by maintaining blood sugar levels. Doing this lowers your chance of suffering from diabetes.
The healthy fats in peanut butter are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which are associated with a lower risk of obesity. 
These aren’t all of the benefits of natural peanut butter. Additionally, peanuts contain antioxidants such as resveratrol, and vitamin E, vitamin B3 (niacin) vitamin B6, folate, magnesium, copper, and manganese. Antioxidants help to prevent and repair cell damage in your body. Niacin can help stave off Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders.
Peanut butter is a good source of fat. It is not to be considered a good source of protein. Like all fats, it is high in calories so it should be eaten in small amounts, especially if you are trying to lose weight.
Organic vs. Natural Peanut Butter
Natural and organic are not interchangeable. Natural peanut butter uses peanuts free of synthetic or artificial ingredients or additives. Organic peanut butter is made with peanuts grown without artificial pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides.
What is Peanut Flour?
Peanut flour is comprised of crushed and defatted peanuts pressed into a powder. In other words, peanut flour removes the nutritional value of what makes peanut butter healthy. Products like PB2 are considered powdered peanut butter which are similar to flour except they usually have sugar or salt added. Some may view these products as good alternatives to peanut butter since they have less calories, however they also do not provide the healthy fat, the same thick texture, or the same strong peanutty taste as true peanut butter.
If you want the benefits of peanuts combined with chocolate, try our Peanut Butter Brownie Catalyst Bars. They have bits of peanuts in every bite!
