Marketing Deception

Don’t fall for this marketing ploy. In the photos are 3 types of peanut butter (PB) from the same brand: regular, reduced fat, and 1/3 less sodium & sugar. When shopping, what caught my eye was the peanut butter on the right that claims to contain 1/3 less salt & sugar. It made me question how much sugar was in the regular PB that they would need to remove a third of it and create an alternative. I decided to look at all three PBs and compare their nutrition facts [total calories, fat(g/kcal), carbohydrate(g/kcal), sugars(g) and protein (g/kcal) per serving]. While what I discovered was disappointing, it was, unfortunately, not surprising. Notice how the PB which claims to have less sugar actually has the greatest amount of calories per serving...? Keep in mind that every gram of sugar is equal to 4 calories.

Regular

Total calories-190 kcal

Fat-16g/144 kcal

Carbohydrate-6g/24 kcal

Sugars-3g/12 kcal

Protein-7g

Reduced fat

Total calories-180 kcal

Fat-12g/108 kcal

Carbohydrate-15g/60 kcal

Sugars-4g/16 kcal

Protein-7g