I have a question about how some foods taste (I can't taste them now, not until I've finished Optifast)...
I was grocery shopping today and passed by the peanut butter and jelly.
I noticed (at my eye level) there were some jars of Organic Peanut Butter and Natural peanut butter - they were the same brand, but not sure which brand.
The organic and natural peanut butters had the same calories and fat grams per serving and your regular processed peanut butter. The only difference was (obviously) that there was no corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup in the organic and natural pb.
So, does Natural peanut butter taste as good as the regular stuff (I'm referring to the creamy kind, btw)? Also, is it possible to make your own peanut butter?
And jelly - I saw sugar free strawberry preserves (I LOVE strawberry preserves). 10 calories per serving, compared to 50 cals per serving for regular preserves. However, the sugar free stuff, although sweetened with Splenda (yay for splenda), seemed to have quite a bit more additives.
So which would really be better??? And does sugar free preserves taste like the regular ones?
I rely on you guys to give me good info - as this will help me decide what to include in my food choices when I am done with Optifast.
THAnks!!!

It tastes different. Regular peanut butter like Jif or Skippy is sweeter and more creamy then natural. Natural has more peanutty taste, not quite as smooth. I'm not talking gritty, just not quite as smooth.

Yes, you can make your own nut butters using any nuts you want, just grind them smooth. But what to use to grind it? I guess a food processor or blender would work if you want to mess with cleaning it out afterwards. I've not tried to make it myself.

The sugar free preserves-the ones sweetened with splenda aren't that good. For 10 calories it's not horrible but I felt that it tastes more like artificial sweetener with a watered down fruit flavor then the no sugar added jellies/preserves. I won't buy them again.

Good luck
Sarah

Natural peanut butter tastes the same to me, but has a different consistency. It is stickier. It will stick to the roof of your mouth more easily, I think. Yeah, calorie-wise, it's not much different from hydrogenated peanut butter, but why not just get the kind that doesn't have the icky preservatives? By the way, I bought some Skippy all natural PB the other day. Haven't tried it yet, but will be sure to let you know what I think...

I'm a Jif Crunchy gal all the way, but in order to get away from that I've decided to move myself toward the natural stuff. What I'm going to do is mix the two, gradually cutting down the amount of Jif and increasing the amout of natural. I bought the natural last night, so I'm just starting. What bothers me as much as the taste though is that it says you need to refrigerate the natural (which makes sense given that the oil separates and could get rancid if left out), and I don't like cold pb. Has anyone tried not refrigerating it? It's on the regular shelf at the store, but I'm assuming that it's vacumn/pressured sealed to stay fresh. Anyway, I'm mixing Jif and the natural about 2/3 Jif tonight and see how it goes from there....

I think natural peanut butter tastes the same as well. Health food stores often have peanut butter maker machines where the machine will make you peanut butter on the spot. Some also have almond butter and cashew butter. I actually don't remember ever buying "regular" peanut butter though as I switched to natural 15 years ago or so.

As far as no sugar added preserves, I buy only preserves/jam/jelly that have no sweeteners in them at all, splenda or otherwise. I recently bought a jar of unsweetened raspberry rhubarb butter and it is quite good.

I think the natural nut butters have more real nut taste. If you have a health food or bulk food store that has a grind your own machine, it's a great way to try it (especially since it's sometimes kind of expensive). I love almond and cashew nut butter, and one of our health food stores has peanut and almond grind your own. I bought some of the almond butter, I took the plastic deli container they provide, and ground out only about 3 - 4 tablespoons. Instant portion control.

As for jams, I like the All Fruit brand (calorie-wise it's half way between regular and sugar free). But my aunt makes great homemade sugar free strawberry and strawberry rhubarb jam with fruit and sugar free jello. I don't have the recipe anymore, but I know I've found it using google (I searched for jello jam or something like that).

If you try to make your own, I have read that you have to make sure the nuts are fresh and taste good, and you may have to add a teaspoon of oil to help with the grinding and make the nut butter smoother.

I think that you don't have to refrigerate the natural (if you keep it in a cool place and eat it in a reasonable time), but that it will separate, and you will have to stir the oil back in.

I used to let it sit in the cabinet, and actually poor off the oil that came to the top. I doubt it reduced the calories by much if any, and it made the peanut butter a little drier, but I liked it that way.

Personally, I like natural peanut butter better. I buy Trader Joe's Organic Creamy Peanut Butter. I think the consistency is close to the processed peanut butters, although it is probably not quite as smooth (it's been a few years since I at processed peanut butter, so it's hard for me to compare). I store it in the fridge and don't have a problem with the oil separating (I do have to stir the oil in the first time I open a jar, but after that it is fine). If you store it a room temperature, I have noticed that it is soupier than the processed peanut butters.

I make my own jelly (not sugar-free), so it's been years since I ate sugar-free jelly.

- Barbara

I LOVE natural peanut butter! I eat it at least 5 days a week on a 7-grain bagel for breakfast. Different natural peanut butters taste different and have different textures (above and beyond the whole "chunky" vs. "smooth" thing). I tried a number of different ones, both in jars at the supermarket and freshly ground in the health food store. To my surprise, the one I liked best was the most convenient, and probably cheapest, for me - the Kroger store brand of chunky natural PB. It's just peanuts and salt. I do keep it in the fridge to prevent oil separation (stirring the oil in initially is messy and a bit of a pain, so I only want to do it once!) but I don't eat it cold. Pat, maybe you could take it out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature before you eat it?

In my experience, the natural PB tastes quite different than the "regular" stuff. As someone else said, it's more nutty whereas the regular is sweeter and more spreadable.

Natural PB is great stuff!

I agree with the posters who think natural peanut butter (without added sugar) has a much more normal/natural taste.

I LOVE almond butter and cashew butter, and I've even tried sunflower butter (not as good, IMO).

Whoever said to mix half processed and half natural had a good idea, as a way to 'wean' yourself into the natural stuff.

As far as jelly goes, if you must have it I'd go for the AllFruit or 100% fruit brands. They don't add sugar and preservatives and they're delicious.

Homemade jam and jelly. yummmmm

I agree with what seems to be the consensus, natural PB is stickier, more nutty, and not as creamy/smooth as the regular stuff but I don't think it really tastes any different. Tastes like peanut butter to me.

I do keep mine in the fridge after opening and stirring the oil in. The only time I eat peanut butter is when I'm spreading it on something, like toast or a bagel or something, but when it's cold it's practically impossible to spread on any soft bread type product. So, I take off the lid and microwave it in the jar (glass) until is softens enough to spread. I don't think it changes anything and it tastes the same.

I prefer the taste/consistency of natural peanut butter now, but it was kind of an acquired taste. I don't refrigerate mine, I like it gloppy. I just stir it around a few times with the knife while I'm waiting for toast.

Natural peanut butter is definitely worth it to me to avoid trans fat.

I have some Skippy All Natural PB that I tried for the first time a few days ago and I can't stop eating it. It's great. It's not very oily, in fact it is a little drier than regular PB.

I love Smuckers Sugar Free strawberry, blackberry and orange preserves jelly! It tastes great with peanut butter. I like cashew butter (kettle organic) much better than peanut butter. I also bought Hazelnut butter yesterday(cant wait to try)!

I know there is a low carb peanut butter/soynut butter which I havent tried.

I prefer natural. I like the texture, and it's not too sweet. As for jelly, I've never been a big jelly person. I grew up on peanut butter and honey rather than peanut butter and jelly.