Love Peanut Butter but Hate the Fat? I can fix that!

I love peanuts and peanut butter but nuts have a lot of calories and fat for such a small portion. I found an organic peanut butter powder that has 24% fewer calories and 1/10^th of the fat. The downside is that the powder has more sodium, half the protein (which is not much to begin with), and contains coconut sugar. Whenever manufacturers lower the fat, they typically add sugar and salt.

I normally only buy peanut butter that contains one ingredient: peanuts. If you’re looking to lower fat and calories, this is a great alternative. You also only need a fraction of what you would normally use. For instance, if I’m making a smoothie with peanut butter, I add 1 tbsp. which has 8 grams of fat and 95 calories. To get the same peanut flavor with the powder, I only need 1 tsp. which is a mere 8 calories and .25 grams of fat. Not bad!

You can use the peanut powder in your smoothies, to make Pad Thai peanut sauce, or add to make a chicken peanut soup. You can buy peanut butter powder at specialty stores or at markets that cater to healthy living. Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

 2 TBSP Peanut Butter                                     2 TBSP   Peanut Butter Powder

190 calories                                                     45 calories

16 grams of fat (wow!)                                 1.5 grams of fat

5mg sodium                                                     90mg sodium*

4 net carbs                                                       4 net carbs

8 grams protein                                              4 grams protein

 *Remember that you’ll use less peanut butter powder since it’s concentrated. If you try this and come up with your own recipes and ideas, please share them.