Vegan peanut butter is made without animal by-products or ingredients prohibited by the vegan diet, such as honey and some refined sugars. While most peanut butter is technically vegan, some contain bone-charcoal-refined sugars. Vegans can make their own or buy explicitly labeled vegan peanut butter.
Vegan peanut butter is peanut butter made without animal by-products or other ingredients prohibited by the vegan diet, such as honey and some refined sugars. Most peanut butter is technically vegan because it contains no animal ingredients, but because many vegans also avoid honey and bone-charcoal-refined sugars, some peanut butters don’t conform to their dietary preferences. If a peanut butter contains sugar, it can be difficult to determine if it has been refined with bone char. As a result, vegans will look for sugar-free peanut butter or a brand explicitly labeled vegan.
Traditional peanut butter is a simple food product made with just a few ingredients. Roasted peanuts are mashed into a paste with salt, a sweetener and oil. Major commercial brands often contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil to prevent separation. The natural and organic varieties will omit the sugar, replace the palm oil with the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or reduce the salt.
Vegans do not consume any animal products or by-products, including honey, eggs and dairy milk. Consequently, most traditional peanut butter is also technically vegan peanut butter if the term vegan is strictly defined by the absence of animal products. Peanut butters that use sweeteners like honey and refined sugar can still run afoul of the vegan diet, though for many vegans, consuming or avoiding these products is a matter of personal choice.
Honey is avoided by many vegans because it is a product made by bees. Like an insect, a bee is a living thing, so its products aren’t traditionally considered vegan. Some vegans aren’t against using insect products like honey or silk because they don’t think insects are aware of pain. Furthermore, such vegans argue that honey production no longer causes bees the pain of insect collateral deaths from picking and transporting fruits and vegetables. Agave nectar is a common vegan substitute for honey.
Many commercial brands of peanut butter contain refined sugar. While refined sugar is not an animal product or byproduct, some brands are processed using animal bone charcoal. Bone charcoal is a filter that removes impurities, color and minerals from sugar. Because bone charcoal is made from charred animal bones, some vegans won’t eat refined sugar because it was made from an animal product. Vegans who avoid refined sugar will use an alternative such as raw sugar, turbinado or beetroot.
If a brand of peanut butter contains refined sugar or honey, it may not be suitable for all vegans. Most labels don’t specify what type of sugar the product contains, making it difficult to determine if a peanut butter is truly vegan. To avoid this dilemma, many vegans will make their own peanut butter or buy a sugar-free brand or one that is explicitly labeled as vegan peanut butter. Vegan peanut butter can be served and eaten like any other kind with no detectable difference in taste or texture.
Like most peanut butters, vegan peanut butter offers health benefits and potentially negative effects when consumed in large quantities. Two tablespoons (32 grams) of unsalted smooth peanut butter contain 188 total calories, 135 from fat. A good source of niacin and manganese, peanut butter also provides protein. Some peanut butters contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which prevent the peanut oil from separating and rising all the way to the top of the jar. These oils are trans fats that can have harmful health effects, including increased inflammation and low-density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol levels.
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