November is Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month – YUM!

There are few healthy foods that I absolutely love, actually there is probably only one... Peanut Butter. My list of favorite things includes doughnuts, ice cream, and french fries. But that list wouldn't be complete without peanut butter too. November is Peanut Butter Lovers’ Month, so let's celebrate!

Peanut butter was first offered to the public at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. As we currently know it – with the peanuts roasted and the product churned like butter to be smooth (some smooth with crunchy bits of peanuts) – peanut butter didn’t appear on grocery store shelves until 1922. Making peanut butter is a $6.8 billion a year business in the U.S. Here are some more peanut butter facts from peanut-butter.org:

• An 18 oz. jar of peanut butter needs 850 peanuts to be made.
• The U.S. produces about 6% of the world’s crop of peanuts: by comparison India and China, together, produce about 70%.
•  About 65% of peanuts are used worldwide for the production of peanut oil; another 20% is used for the production of candy.
• Peanut oil accounts for 8% of the worldwide edible oil production.
• Two U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter and Thomas Jefferson, were peanut farmers.
• Peanuts are not actually nuts: they are legumes and grow underground.
• Peanuts account for 2/3rds of the total snack “nuts” consumed in the United States.
• One acre of peanut crop yields 2,860 pounds of peanuts, enough to make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches.
• Americans eat 700 million pounds of peanut butter every year (3 pounds per person), which could theoretically cover the entire floor of the Grand Canyon.
• People becoming hysterical when peanut butter sticks to their palate have “Arachibutyrophobia.”
• Americans on the West Coast prefer chunky peanut butter, whereas those in the East Coast like it creamy.
•    The first peanut butter process was patented by John H. Kellogg and his brother.
• The average American boy eats 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches before reaching the age of 18.
• ·         With very high pressure and temperature, peanut butter can be transformed into diamonds.
• ·         The world’s largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich was created November 6th, 1993 in Peanut, Pennsylvania. It was 40-foot-long and contained 150 lbs. of peanut butter and 50 lbs. of jelly.
• 96% of people, when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, put the peanut butter on before the jelly.
• Adults actually consume more peanut butter than kids.