Peanut Butter Day

What the day is

Peanut Butter Day is observed on January 24. Peanuts are not nuts but legumes, closer to peas and beans, and they grow underground.

Origin and background

The most consequential thing to say about peanut butter concerns allergy advice, because it changed completely and many people are still following the old version.

For years, parents in several countries were told to delay giving peanut products to infants, particularly those considered at higher risk. Rates of peanut allergy rose anyway. A large randomized trial published in 2015 tested the assumption directly, introducing peanut to high-risk infants from a few months old and comparing them with infants who avoided it. The result was decisive and in the opposite direction from the guidance: early, regular introduction produced a very large reduction in peanut allergy by age five. National guidelines were revised accordingly, and the current recommendation for most infants is early introduction rather than avoidance, in an age-appropriate form and after discussion with a doctor where there is existing severe eczema or egg allergy.

Two points on the jar itself. Natural peanut butter separates because it is ground peanuts, and peanut oil is liquid at room temperature; the standard product does not separate because stabilizing fat has been added to hold it together. Separation is a sign of a short ingredient list, not spoilage.

And George Washington Carver, frequently credited with inventing peanut butter, did not. Versions predate his work by decades. His actual contribution was substantial and different: promoting peanuts and sweet potatoes as crops that restored nitrogen to soil ruined by continuous cotton, which mattered enormously to southern farmers.

How to take part

• Check current infant feeding guidance rather than relying on what was said a decade ago.
• Store natural peanut butter upside down so the oil redistributes, then refrigerate it.
• Read the label. Good peanut butter needs peanuts and perhaps salt.
• Use it somewhere savory, which is its older and larger role worldwide.
• Take airborne and contact allergy seriously in shared spaces, where the stakes are not yours.