hi everyone,

i just have a quick question, is natural organic peanut butter raw? i am not really sure if heat is produced when the peanuts are ground...

i really like having apples dipped in peanut butter as a snack, i was just wondering if this would be considered raw?

thanks for your time,

take care,

mindy

It is never raw. You could buy truly raw peanuts from a raw website like sunfood.com and make your own. Or you could buy raw almond butter (the rawness is up for debate, but it's for sure more raw than peanut butter).

Opinion. Rost is correct. Think less about if something is 'raw' and think 'fresh fruits and vegetables.' You can certainly make your own raw, green peanut-butter.....but I can't vouch for the taste...or the health of it. LOL.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

thanks for the responses.

i will look for almond butter, see how i like that.

i never really thought about it, i guess most peanuts are roasted?

thanks again,

mindy

I think even if they're not roasted, the processing involves heating, esp. for non-organic with the alfatoxins and such....?

So if you go to a raw-foodist-specific website, you might be able to find soe peanuts. Also, I"m not a huge fan of dehydration at home, but will ocassionally buy dehydrated items. This site, www.rawveganbooks.com has some non-vegan items, but they do have dehydrated nut butters that are supposed to be better than roasted!

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

One thing I will say...eating apples and peanut butter, celery and peanut butter and other things like that really helped me with transitioning. It's certainly better for you to be eating apples and peanut butter than a candy bar right?

i have heard that peanuts and peanut butter isn't that good for you. Something about toxins and fungus? anyone know about this?

I think that's only the non-organic peanuts, robinbird.

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

aflatoxin is the name for a group of toxins that are produced by two fungi called Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. these toxins occur naturally and have been found in a wide range of commodities (particularly peanuts) used for animal and human consumption. depending on the levels, the toxins can severely affect the liver and they are a known human carcinogen.

here's the most interesting thing about all this: usually your "organic" or "natural" peanut butters will have the highest aflatoxin concentration. the highest concentration of all, though, will typically be the stuff you buy in the store where they take peanuts and grind them into peanut butter for you while you wait. because while the USDA and FDA has rules for how much aflatoxin is allowed in food before it's shipped to stores, there's no measure of it after it reaches the stores. those peanuts could have been sitting on the shelves at the story for weeks or months at room temperature, building up mold. it's even worse if the air is mildly moist. furthermore, if you fresh-grind those nuts into peanut butter, the mold keeps growing in the peanut butter. it rarely grows to the point where you can see it with the naked eye.

wow thanks for the info. so either don't eat peanut butter or only eat natural that comes in the jar? thanks

hi everyone,

thank you for the information!

after reading maui_butterfly's post i am not sure that i will eat peanut butter again!!

thank you for the websites utopian life. i will check it out for sure.

i have been trying to eat apple and peanut butter when i really want something like chocolate and caramel and stuff, it has been working, so i hope that it keeps working!

thank you again,

take care,

mindy

there are so many terrific nut butters that you can buy and make. sunflower and pumpkin seeds are great, sesame seeds, almond, macadamia, cashew, walnut, hazelnut, etc etc. peanuts are banned at my son's school so we've tried them all! almond is a hands down fave. i slip the pumpkin seeds into his smoothies, they are terrific for male health.

good luck!

hi coco,

thanks for the information. i love almonds so maybe i will try to make my own almond butter. i am a teacher so peanuts are off limits to me at work, generally all nuts are off limits! i think that i will try sesame seeds because that would be an option to take to school.

thank you again,

mindy

Mindy, it can be tricky to make your own nutbutter, the consistancy is difficult. my suggestion is to process the nuts or seeds in a food processor until you get them pretty ground up. at that point you can add a little water or oil or both to get it to be more of a paste.
i have a juicer with a screw that presses instead of spins so i can do nuts and seeds in there but a food processor is your next best bet. a blender will have trouble and maybe it isn't so great for the blender's motor either!

also, if you are making any nut or seed milks in the blender you can use the pulp that you strain out to mix with seasonings etc to make nut pate, it's an amazing little filler for nori and salad rolls and you can season it to be sweet or savory. think pie crust!
there are some recipes here on this forum, take a peek!

thanks!!

i am just on my way now to try to make some halva from this site!

have a great day!

mindy

When I made pumpkin seed butter, my K-Tec started smelling funny because it took so long. And it wasn't as creamy as commercial...but I added some water and it was still SO yummy! So you will love experimenting.