What do you think when you see the word “natural” on a food label? I think, “Great! Nothing’s been added to the main ingredient.”

I have preferred “natural” peanut butter for several years. That’s ground-up peanuts with nothing added except salt. The two brands that have been available to me bear the Smucker’s and Kroger labels. [They contain 150 mg. and 120 mg. of salt per serving respectively.  I might like it even better without the salt.]

“Regular” peanut butter typically adds not only salt but hydrogenated oils and sugar.

Knowing my preference, my husband recently brought home some Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread. The words spread and contains 90% peanuts were the first clue that maybe this wasn’t what I considered “natural.” Sure enough, added to peanuts on the list of ingredients were sugar, palm oil, and 2% or less of molasses and salt.

A Google search led me to Snack Girl‘s post on the subject. According to her research, the only difference between Jif Natural and Jif regular peanut butter is the absence of hydrogenated oil. The problem with that, however, is that although they haven’t hydrogenated the oils in the peanut butter to give it extra shelf life, they have used palm oil, which is naturally hydrogenated!

This is one more example of why you can’t trust the front label on processed foods. They are packaged to sell the ingredients. “Low fat” may mean added sugar, and “sugar-free” may indicate added fat. If we want to eat more food and less poison, we must read the ingredients and nutrition labels.

Have you found any “false labeling” lately?