This is probably going to be a dumb question, and I thought I already knew the answer, but one of the trainers at my gym told me that there is no unsaturated fat in regular peanut butter. He said only organic peanut butter has unsaturated fat. I thought any peanut butter, whether organic or not, has unsaturated fat...right??

It still amazes me how mis-informed so many people are - especially "trainers". All peanut butter has unsaturated fat. The difference between organic versus regular is usually they have no added sugars and the peanuts used will be non-GMO. Many standard processed peanut butters add a lot of sugar which in and of itself is very unhealthy.

Do not rely on a trainer's nutritional advice unless they have a degree in nutrition or nutritional credentials. There is so much incorrect nutritional "advice" that either relies on biased info from the U.S. government and other agencies (AMA, AHA) or outdated science - cholesterol and saturated fat links to heart disease (never proven), blood pressure guidelines (current "normal" 120/80 and under does not apply to people over age 50 as it is really 140/90 and under), use of vegetable oils as a healthy alternative to coconut and other saturated oils (vegetable oils are loaded with inflammation causing Omega-6 fats), and added sugar (the real cause for heart disease and type 2 diabetes).

John

OK great, that's what I thought. I do have another question.

Sometimes on nutrition labels I find that the total of the individual fats doesn't add up to the total fat listed. For example, if you look up the nutrition facts for 100g of peanuts, it says:

Total fat: 49g

saturated fat: 7g

polyunsatured fat: 16g

monounsatured fat: 24g

If you add up the individual fats, 7g+16g+24g=47g. That's 2g less than the total fat listed. This is just an example, I've noticed this on other nutrition labels too. So what does the amount that's unaccounted for represent?

Cool. No worries. Fat is actually a great and important macro (when naturally occurring) and hopefully everyone will some day realize this and that the AHA, AMA, and FDA are influenced by money more than the concern for people's health.

Sometimes it is naturally occuring trans-fats - it is only the man-made trans-fats that are dangerous and must be reported on nutrition labels. Sometimes they round down the fat numbers to make them look lower as everyone is still programmed to think fats are bad. For example 7g listed when it is really 7.5g, etc.

John

Sounds like your trainer has been eating some funky peanut butter.. lol. Seriously though, it's as easy as looking at the label. And yes like John said, peanut butter WILL have unsaturated fat. It's almost entirely unsaturated fat, as you can see from your example.

For the numbers not adding up to the total - it's just rounding. You'll notice the same thing in terms of calories.. if you add up the macro totals for quite a lot of foods, they will often be slightly under the actual total calorie count.