The truth about peanut butter.

Before I get into it today, I just want mention two things: 1.) Hell yeah, 'Cuse hoopse! and 2.) I decided to move my 2nd cardio session of the week to Friday morning in order to approach deadlifts with fresh legs this afternoon. Life goes on. Yesterday was a rest day, and as you can see I did some work on dietary fat.

5:30PM - Oops! broke the fast before I remembered to take a picture. Three-meat chili omelette made with 4 eggs and fried in coconut oil; steamed broccoli.

8:00PM - A small salad with ~9 oz. grilled chicken breast, the rest of my pork loin from Saturday, tomatoes, cucumbers half of an avocado, ~1Tbs. olive oil, and splashes of balsamic vinegar and Frank's Red hot.

My body was still craving fat after these two meals and I went on one of my "search, seize, and slam" missions. I followed up with three strips of bacon and a handful of almonds. Should have stopped there. I tapped into the peanut butter jar against my better judgment, and things got a slightly out of control as usual. The 16oz. jar was about 50% full when I got to it, and 0% full after I had my way with it; you do the math.

Put the gross amount aside, and you may be thinking, "but I thought peanuts were supposed to be good for you." And that's partially true, I guess. Peanuts and peanut butter contain some vitamins and minerals and they're pretty low in carbohydrates (~3g net and 2.5g fiber/oz). Also on the plus side, peanuts contain a decent amount of protein (~7g/oz). Despite the relatively high fat content (~14g/oz.) and the general population's irrational fear of such things, most people understand that humans "need some fat to live" and peanuts contain "good fat" so they are given a pass.

So to recap: peanuts are high in fat, moderately high in protein, and moderately low in carbs. Seems consistent with "rest day" goals, no? Well, eating a butt-load of peanuts is certainly better than eating an equally caloric butt-load of jellybeans. In truth, peanuts are a lot better than most things you'll find in the average American pantry, especially from a macronutrient standpoint. But macros are like a chick in a bikini: they show a lot, but not everything!

Not only is peanut butter full of healthy fat; it also prevents wrinkles.

Let's start with protein, because this number probably hides the least amount of info. The building blocks of proteins are called amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids, and they link together in varying sequences to make different proteins. Of these 20, nine are essential to human function, and a "complete" or "whole" protein is one that contains these nine EAAs in adequate proportions. While proteins derived from animal products are generally complete (with the one exception being gelatin), plant-based proteins tend to be lacking in one or more of the essentials, and thus need to be "complimented" by other proteins to fulfill human dietary needs. Peanuts are no exception and contain unfavorable proportions of EAAs. The-take home message is this: animal protein > plant protein.
***As you will see, most varieties of peanuts and peanut butter also contain added sugar and/or fat. An ounce is an ounce, and simple mass balancing tells us that whatever you add, you must lose of raw ingredient. The result here is slightly decreased protein per ounce.

Unless you participate in regular intense exercise, your body doesn't need much in the way of carbs; we are programmed to run on fat. There are a few bodily processes that require glucose for energy, but a few cups of daily veggies, and the occasional piece of fruit should be enough for most people. If you're just eating raw peanuts, the residual carb content is pretty negligible unless you're up in the 5+ oz. range (shoot, that's like, 98% of the time for me). Unfortunately, because sweet and salty and/or savory is such a ridiculous combo, many roasted varieties of peanuts and the majority of peanut butters - including the JIF Natural that my mom buys and I demolish - have added sugar (not good). This inches that net carb count closer to 5g/oz, and increases the effect on blood sugar and resultant insulin release. (Side-note: reduced-fat varieties of peanut butter have some of the peanut oil removed and replaced with starches and other additives, making it even worse for you. If you are actually capable of eating PB in moderation, your best bet is "natural" brand with full-fat content no added sugar. If you're like me, do your best to avoid that shit like the plague.) If I ate 8 ounces last night, I consumed roughly 40g of carbs and a whole tablespoon of added sugar, in addition to...

A crap load of fat. I depend on fat as my main fuel source on rest days, but I estimate needing no more than 110g (~1000kCal worth) in my diet on those days. As I mentioned, peanuts offer plenty of fat, and it's important to note that anything with "roasted" peanuts will also contain added oils. In generic peanut butter, these oils are cheap vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated (chemically altered from unsaturated to saturated) to increase shelf life. Natural saturated fat is fine, trans fat truly is evil. The peanuts used to make JIF natural are roasted in palm oil, and thus contain about 15g/oz. 15g/oz. * 8oz. = 120g. I exceeded my needs on peanut butter alone. Add in the fat in the chili, egg yolks, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, and almonds and I am pretty much doubling my needs. There's a lot more to the calorie in vs. calorie out equation but for simplicity's sake, what I don't use I'm going to store. Fuck! As I've mentioned a few times before, not all fats are created equal. Here's a quick run down, per oz.

Total fat: 13.5g
   Saturated: 1.9g
   Monounsaturated: 7.2g
   Polyunsaturated: 4.4 g
      Omega-3: .8mg
      Omega-6: 4355mg

Conventional wisdom would have us believing that this low ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat is a favorable one. If you haven't read The Truth About Fat!, do so now - I'll wait. As you can see, the SFAs and MUFAs are no big deal, but just look at that Omega-6 content! Palm oil has a slightly better profile, but is still not great. Let's say that the peanut butter has 4.3g of n-6 per ounce, and I ate 8 oz. That's over 34g of omega-6 and virtually zero omega-3. The I'm looking for is a ratio of n-6:n:3 somewhere between 1:1 and 4:1, which means I would need 8.5g just to reach the high end. Most of the other fats I eat are generally low in overall PUFAs but still have unfavorable ratios. That's why I supplement with 4g of omega-3s daily. To offset the inflammation caused by peanut butter I'd have to eat fish oil caps by the handful (and also store excess as fat).

Peter Pan's new label. Seriously though, how fun would the grocery store be if packaging was truthful?

So sorry to depress all you peanut lovers. Just know that as much as you hate this information, I almost certainly hate it worse. I'll readily admit I have an addiction, but I stand firm that I will never give peanuts completely. I like them in all varieties and the taste/texture combination that peanut butter has got going on is about as close to perfection as you can get. Still, I know I need to cut back. I won't buy it on my own but it literally shows up everywhere. Unfortunately, so do spoons. In some ways I'm thankful to George Washington Carver for creating such a delicious masterpiece. At the same time, fuck him for causing my body so much destruction.

This dog feels me.