Try Skippy instead. It's less sweet and loaded with peanuts.

No, I only eat natural peanut butter, like Adams. Jif and Skippy have too many unnecessary ingredients.

Ingredients of Jif and Skippy:
Roasted peanuts and sugar, contains 2% or less of: molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils (rapeseed, cottenseed, and soybean), mono and diglycerides, salt.

Here's Adams' ingredients:

Peanuts, contains 1% or less of salt.

It's not necessary to add sugar to peanut butter. If you grind your own peanuts at the grocery store to make peanut butter, you're not adding sugar. Americans eat too much sugar as it is.

We only buy peanut butter made of just two ingredients - peanuts and salt. Nothing else is required.

Me too - Trader Joe's organic peanut butter is awesome. I prefer creamy, but their crunchy is crammed full of peanuts - just sayin'.

Or

This is the one I eat. Just peanuts and salt.

I guess you could crunch up some peanuts in the food processor & stir them into the peanut butter to get it as crunchy as you like it. Anyway, that is what I would do. And hope that I had been unlucky and ended up with a few jars that just got shorted on the crunchy.

Jif is the best because of the molasses. I only buy creamy and eat a PB&J maybe once a week when we have chicken noodle soup.

Isn't molasses sweet? I'm not sure why peanut butter needs to be sweet. Peanuts aren't sweet.

Jiffy creamy at our house.

Here are some recent peanut reports:

https://agfax.com/tag/peanuts/

I like Amy's preferred peanut butter too.

Too much sugar in Jif we buy the store brand. DELISH.

Santa Cruz brand peanut butter for me. The best. Nothing but peanuts and a little salt.

We only eat peanuts and salt as well. My favorite p'butter which is actually a store brand hasn't been available for months, so we've had to switch...took us awhile to find an acceptable brand again so now we go with Teddy's. It's amazing how different the brands will taste, even though they're all just peanuts and salt.

I had a jar of Jif extra crunchy a few months ago and it seemed fine. When I encounter problems like this, I go to the company's website, search for the CONTACT US link and notify them of the issue. Most companies are responsive.

We buy mostly store brands (super crunchy) and I do eat it out of the jar quite a bit, too often actually.

I will have to look because the store brands we buy don't seem overly sweet.

we buy TJ's crunchy peanut butter with flax and chia seeds!! (red lid) Love it!! no sugar added!!

That is really sad, if they changed the amount of crunchiness. I love them, because of the extra crunchy effect.

Moni

We prefer smooth. I remember decades ago crunchy peanut butter wasn't extra crunchy and the peanuts were more evenly distributed. That is when we switched over to smooth.

Used to buy Jif but lately I think Skippy tastes better.

Peanut butter is supposed to be a bit processed to make it a tasty spread in my opinion. Never tasted a natural peanut butter I liked. If I wanted just peanuts and salt I would just eat salted peanuts and grind them myself with my teeth. Simply mashing fruit does not make jam either. Generations have enjoyed it in its commercial form. Don't try to fix what ain't broke. Nutritionally there is little difference. Might as well enjoy childhood memories of what peanut butter should taste like.

I wonder if the difference is in the giant sized jars we've been purchasing from the warehouse stores? The last three jars have been this way, still have one in the pantry, as they come in packs of two. Can't imagine the peanut butter is different per packaging, though. Next time I'm at the grocery store, I'll pick up a smaller jar of their Jif extra crunchy. And maybe Skippy as well. Haven't tasted Skippy in many years, as we've always liked Jif. We've expressed our concern through the Jif website, just waiting to hear back. Thanks, all, for the comments!

My husband is a peanut butter aficionado, and will eat it all: commercial, natural, freshly ground from the local nut store, etc. We don't normally shop at Costco, but I went once with a friend and picked up a giant jar of Jif creamy. It didn't taste the same to me as what get in the supermarket, and he agreed. So maybe it does differ in some way?

We use Peter Pan, honey roast style, creamy. I don't really mind if it has added sugars because we don't use a lot of peanuts in any form. A small jar will last us 3 or 4 months. I cut down on peanuts years ago because I noticed when I ate a lot of peanut products, I'd get a skin rash. Coincidence maybe, but it caused me to lose my appetite for my childhood daily favorite, peanut butter & chocolate chip sandwiches.

I seldom eat peanut butter, but did buy a small jar of Jif crunchy within the last month. It has so many bits of peanut in it that I can barely spread it on a cracker. We'd have to consume a LOT more peanut butter to care whether it's 'good for us' or not. IDK if peanuts are especially 'good for us' in any form -- are they?

Elmer J Fudd Isn't molasses sweet? I'm not sure why peanut butter needs to be sweet. Peanuts aren't sweet.

It just brings out the peanut flavor for some reason.

I'm not sure why a lot of things need to be sweet but they are.

I would take a photo of the jar in question and send it to the company. They can tell you if it's the new normal or they'll send you a coupon for a free jar.

IDK if peanuts are especially 'good for us' in any form -- are they?

Consumer Reports seems to think so:

A 2017 Harvard study of more than 210,000 people, for example, found that those who ate two or more servings of peanuts per week had 13 percent reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those who didn’t.

Several studies have also found that peanuts may be good for your waistline. A 2017 study published in the European Journal of Nutrition, for example, found that people who ate the most nuts—including peanuts—gained less weight and had a 5 percent lower risk of becoming overweight or obese over the five-year study period compared with those who didn’t eat them.

“Yes, they’re high in calories,” Malik says, “but because they’re also rich in protein and fiber, you can feel satiated without overeating them.”

None of these studies prove that the peanuts themselves directly lowered risks of disease and weight gain—designing such a study is almost impossible—but the growing body of evidence does seem to suggest a benefit.

https://www.consumerreports.org/nuts/are-peanuts-good-for-you

Great info, Bookwoman! My husband and I eat healthy in most areas, but we do like homemade bread and we both like sweets. We like to dip into the Jif before bedtime, along with strawberry jam - homemade if we have it - or Smuckers. The kids hate peanut butter, so it's all ours. :-)

If you like to eat healthy foods, note that products like Smuckers preserves, etc., are made with high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient best avoided.

Try Bonne Maman instead, delicious products. All made with sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, and with a much fruitier taste than most American brands.

Another vote for Bonne Maman. And if you can find it near you, Tiptree.

I also find Jif Crunchy to be plenty full of peanut chunks.....to the same degree as the above comment that it becomes difficult to spread.

When I am feeling particularly flush and have the need, I sometimes pick up PB from a local artisanal organic supplier, CB's Nuts. I say 'flush' as their product is more than twice the price of store brands!! And this is what they say about the health benefits of peanut butter: "Roasted peanut butter is high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats (including oleic acid, the healthful fat found in olive oil) and is also a good source of vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein, magnesium, and manganese. Peanuts have also been found to contain the phenolic antioxidant resveratrol, the beneficial compound found in red wine and grapes. Roasting can increase another of peanuts’ antioxidants, primarily a compound called p-coumaric acid, by as much as 22%, making roasted peanuts richer in antioxidants than apples, carrots, or beets. Finally, eating peanuts can also help reduce the risk of developing cancer, as they contain a form of phytosterol called beta-sitoserol (SIT), which is known to inhibit tumor growth. With all that goodness, it shouldn't be surprising that studies show frequent peanut consumption can lower your risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer."

'I'm not sure why a lot of things need to be sweet but they are."

That's because there's sugar in everything. Sugar is addicting. The American public has become accustomed to things being sweetened to excess. Peanut butter doesn't need to have added sugar. That's just catering to the sugar addiction that people have acquired.

Peanut butter doesn't need to have added salt either but all of these posters pooh-poohing added sugar in PB are buying peanut butter with salt. Salt is unhealthy.

Food banks generally like peanut butter because it's easy to keep, easy to eat, kids like it, and it's a good source of plant-based protein.

Amylou- today’s a day I needed a laugh and you sure gave me one! Plus, I may go buy some (one) of your “peanut butter” to help me get through the rest of today.

Salt is not unhealthy...in fact it's essential.

The human body can't live without some sodium. It's needed to transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscle fibers (including those in the heart and blood vessels), and maintain a proper fluid balance.

However, too much salt can be bad for you. But the amount of salt in pb is small...daily recommended intake of sodium is 1,500 mg and pb has about 5mg in 2Tbsp, salted PB...which will vary by brand... is about 140mg or less than 10% of daily allowance.

all I know is, I beat my beloved to the punchline with computer science humor (their current major) on a picture which they texted to me. It was a Pokemon character with their head in a jar of peanut butter, and they said, "Look, it's me!" and I said... "A GIF about Jif? Yes, it's very you" (I like to bug them about the way GIF is pronounced). So a double-whammy on the beating them to the punchline. Better at quipping and computer science.

Elmer, unless you are making a GMO argument and corn, the body cannot distinguish between sugar from sucrose or sugar from HFCS. The difference is corn is cheaper so mnfctrs use it more often.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/which-is-better-high-fructose-corn-syrup-or-table-sugar

Lindsey, I like Laura Scudders too. I'd probably like Jif too but never tried it and prefer the simpler ingredients.

My goodness! I guess I should up my PB intake! Thanks for the information.

I believe there have been experiments showing that, even in the womb, babies LIKE SWEETS. (Doubt there were tests with brussels sprouts.)

Not so many years ago, British children were put to bed with a hard candy to suck on. No surprise people were toothless so young...or choked to death!

"Elmer, unless you are making a GMO argument and corn,"

Yes, and, (taking one step at a time)

The major reason why high fructose corn syrup is so widely used in the US (and much less so elsewhere) is that sugar in the US has an artificially higher price than anywhere else in the world. Why? Because import tariffs were put in place to hinder sugar imports and artificially protect the rather small remaining US sugar industry. Yes, politics. Sweet corn syrup is a cheaper ingredient, though it wouldn't be if sugar were sold at normal market prices here. I don't support ag subsidies of any kind, they don't benefit the small farmer as they were originally intended to do.

The EU has much higher standards of food wholesomeness and quality. Sugar is preferred there and sweet corn syrup isn't. The EU doesn't have the huge corn industry lobby the US has, that plays a role too.

The GMO feature is of concern to me, I don't support that practice either.

Sweet corn syrup is a manufactured, processed food. I avoid those as much as possible.

I avoid any product with sweet corn syrup instead of sugar. Pass the sugar, please.