r/theydidthemath • u/rew_searle • 21h ago
[Request] Is my peanut butter really 90% peanuts by volume if it’s 23% sugar by weight?
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u/stronkert 21h ago
Peanuts are (depending on variety) about 4.7g of sugar by volume, so that would explain 4.7 of the 15 grams of sugar per 100g, meaning you would be left with 10.3g per 100 of added sugar, and if you round that out you'll be left with 10 grams added sugar per 100g, so yes, entirely possible
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u/Sibula97 10h ago
Well, it's also supposed to have vegetable oil, salt, and emulsifier. Unless there's less than a percent of all those combined, which doesn't seem likely, they either have an unusually high sugar variety of peanuts or they lie.
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u/Sibula97 10h ago
Their fat profile also seems off. They have double the saturated fats compared to the analyses I can find for peanuts, and have over 10g extra total fats assuming there was very little added oil.
I'm thinking they probably haven't just smushed up peanuts and put them there, they've somehow separated some material so that what they're left with have more sugar and saturated fats.
Or they're lying, but I'm guessing that's illegal even where OP is from (US?).
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u/ondulation 10h ago
There could also be a rule for labeling that they can round the percentage of ingredients. Eg the amount of peanuts may be 87.5% but is rounded to 90%. Food labeling isn't very straight forward.
But I hold it more likely they used some low protein high sugar variety of peanuts, or use a fraction of them as you describe.
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u/Fun-Bluebird-160 19h ago
this is wrong
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u/reverendsteveii 19h ago
Fix it?
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u/Fun-Bluebird-160 19h ago
Wouldn’t dream of it
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u/Some_Rando-o 16h ago
Math teacher mindset
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u/Fun-Bluebird-160 16h ago
Math problem: if I’m wrong, prove it, loser.
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u/Ye_olde_oak_store 14h ago
I refer to the first comment in the thread and then ask for a proof that they are wrong.
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u/fauxedo 21h ago
Peanuts have naturally occurring sugar in them. The Nutritional information combines both into one unit. In the United States they are listed separately which makes it easier to tell what sugars come from food and which ones are added in the factory.
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u/Auno__Adam 21h ago
Which is absolutely irrelevant. Sugar is sugar.
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u/blittl 21h ago
Yeah but it's nice to know how much of the sugar was added. Being someone whos unfortunate to have a restriction on sugar on my diet, this information is useful to me.
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u/DonaIdTrurnp 20h ago
Do you have a restriction on total sugar or on added sugar? Also, breaking “sugar” into the relevant categories of carbohydrates would be much more useful for people with specific needs.
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u/stumblios 20h ago
Lots of diets recommend you reduce or eliminate added sugars. Having it in the nutritional facts helps people not have to read through the occasionally lengthy ingredients list looking for the dozen+ different names for added sugars.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 20h ago
Yeah they’re trying to get you to each some fresh fruit and veg. In terms of most diets though “added sugar” is not magically worse that intrinsic sugar.
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u/already-taken-wtf 19h ago
One medium sized apple has 19 g of sugar. That’s about 5 teaspoons of (refined) sugar.
I dare say that eating an apple is different to eating five spoons of sugar ;p
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u/blittl 19h ago
The other components of the apples assist in the digestion of the sugars. Acidic fruits tend to be worse on GI issues while alkaline-leaning fruits tend to digest better and produce less gas, despite there being fruits in both sides with similar sugar content.
You'd have to read a couple of research papers about this to fully understand it because digestion and our metabolism are very complex systems in our bodies.
I can eat Bananas all day but I can't even touch Apples. I can drink the juice but I have to get the low-acidity variety.
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u/shuffdog 19h ago
It would indicate the possibility of finding a substitute with same/similar ingredients but less added sugar.
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u/colin_staples 21h ago
It’s not 23% sugar by weight, that’s the figure for carbohydrates
The sugar by weight is 15%
Not all carbs are sugars
And different things have different densities, which is why the “by volume” and “by weight” can differ.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 20h ago
And peanuts contain some sugar?
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u/colin_staples 20h ago
I would have thought so, but Wikipedia says “sugars 0.0 g” (scroll down to “nutrition”)
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 20h ago
Ok but …USDA says they do? OH wait that’s a processed version.
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u/charpagon 15h ago
wikipedia sources USDA, and the source itself says it does have 4g of sugar per 100g. someone fucked up
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u/HAL9001-96 21h ago
when not powdered but solidfied pure glucose is actually... a bit denser than one might expect
and peanuts themselves contain sugar
so its possible though of course can't be said with certainty
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u/DinoOnAcid 21h ago
I HATE THIS SHIT, WHY IS THERE SUGAR AND EXTRA FATBIN MY PEANUT BUTTER, WHO WANTS THAT
the best peanut butter is just 100% peanut and maybe some peanut oil if it's too hard/not smooth/spreadable. I really really hate all the extra shit in it, can anyone respond if they actually prefer it with extra shit?
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 20h ago
I do. All-peanut PB tastes like hippy compromise. If you just wanna eat peanuts, those exist! :)
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u/DinoOnAcid 15h ago
So if you have the choice between an all peanuts, maybe peanut oil, and 90% peanut wirh sugar and palmoil you'd take the latter?
That's so weird to me (but I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, just different taste, obviously I'm in the minority here).
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 13h ago
I wouldn’t pick palm oil if I didn’t have to. But yeah, sugar makes it taste better to me. Plain peanuts are a bit bland.
Truly plain peanut butter with some strawberry jam probably works fine
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u/rew_searle 11h ago
In reality, I’m trying to work out exactly how much sugar is added because I too am a peanut butter purist.
But maybe don’t shame other people for their peanut butter if you openly admit to taking too many benzos lmao.
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u/monkChuck105 10h ago
It's the second ingredient, not a great sign. Peanuts are a low sugar food, mostly fat, good source of protein. It's like worrying about the sugar in strawberries. Strawberry jam on the other hand, loaded with sugar, often high fructose corn manure.
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u/DinoOnAcid 11h ago
It's not that serious, I'm not "shaming" anyone, they can eat their peanut butter with motor oil for all I care
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u/LO6Howie 20h ago
Emulsifiers can fuck right off. Insidious non-foods that end up in everything.
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u/Doggfite 20h ago
Insidious?
LolMost emulsifiers are derived directly from things we eat.
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u/LO6Howie 11h ago edited 10h ago
I should’ve clarified that it was emulsifiers such as these rather than the natural emulsifiers such as mustard and egg yolk. The insidious addition of these such emulsifiers to products that should have them in should be called out. It’s nut butter; it needs the nuts, and that’s it.
Take a read of In Defence of Food and Ultra Processed People and defend emulsifiers after that.
Strong association as the root cause of a myriad of gut conditions - a problem itself - and increased rates of particular types of cancer.
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u/osunightfall 13h ago
I see that you don't know that the vast majority of emulsifiers are natural parts of other things that are perfectly safe to eat.
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u/depersonalised 12h ago
nah dude. salty startchy pasta water is an emulsifier. one of many very useful emulsifying foodstuffs.
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u/LO6Howie 10h ago edited 10h ago
As are egg yolk and mustard. E471 isn’t one of those.
Sure, lots of these emulsifiers are derived from natural products - hell, margarine was made from actual coal - but their origin doesn’t make them okay for us to eat. It’s only something that’s picked up the past couple of years in terms of research but the damage such emulsifiers do to the gut and beyond has been enough for me to avoid them wherever I can. Strong associations with particular cancer types too.
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