According to Wikipedia, comfort foods are foods that provide a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone and may be categorized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation. Comfort foods are there when you need them during stressful or difficult situations that can calm you down by indulging in them. For many of the students at TC, peanut butter is definitely a comfort food.
It is not surprising that peanut butter is a comfort food. It is delicious, a pleasant sight, cheap, and healthy (in moderation of course!). It’s so compatible, that you can put it on top of almost everything. Melted peanut butter can be drizzled over all sorts of sweets like ice cream and baked in with cakes. But it can also be part of sauces for a variety of dinners. And of course, we all admit to sneak a spoonful of peanut butter from the jar from time to time.
Here’s the dilemma: there are multiple different peanut butters and brands. I asked a few of our peanut butter lovers here at TC to see which peanut butter they prefer. Izzie Borelli, a junior attending TC, claims, “I like creamy peanut butter but sometimes I like to put crunchy peanut butter on my sandwiches to change things up.” Many students completely agree with her, but some students prefer crunchy over creamy. Most people also agree that Jif peanut butter is better than other peanut butter brands such as Peter Pan. In 2007, Peter Pan paid $11 million after an outbreak of salmonella sickening about 625 people in 47 states. After this event, many people choose other brands over Peter Pan peanut butter.
I surveyed over 150 students at TC and what their preferences were for peanut butter. It was a close tie with about 75 students claiming creamy peanut butter was better, and another 75 students denying that it was and saying that crunchy was better. Brittney McCann, a junior, prefers creamy peanut butter over crunchy. For the most part though, most students agreed that it depends on the meal to choose between crunchy and creamy.
