Goin' Nutty

Ahh…peanut butter. The perennial lunchtime favorite for many a mom and tot. I have had a passion for peanut butter all my life. Nutritious, delicious, and cheap. And so versatile! Smeared on sandwiches, toast, in sauces, cookies, or my favorite, eaten by the spoonful straight from the jar (with a 2^nd dip into the jam jar). Yummy!

So as many of these posts go…while I was pregnant with Joseph…I consumed copious amounts of peanut butter. It appeared to me to be the perfect pregnancy food, with its protein-rich, nutty goodness, and the fact that it wouldn’t lead to listeriosis contamination if left unrefrigerated in my backpack. And of course, there would be no evil conventional peanut butter for me, with its added sugar, oil, and pesticides. No, I haughtily ground my own butter at my local health food store (I am so smart and authentic, I thought).

Well, life is filled with endless irony, and my loving, safe relationship with peanut butter was about to turn dark in the shadow of betrayal. After I had consumed pounds of this stuff throughout the pregnancy, I learned that all peanut butter contains some level of aflatoxin, a poisonous mycotoxin produced by the fungi that is present in peanuts. And guess what? That homey, do-it-yourself version at the health food store carries the highest levels! Turns out that I should have been embracing Peter Pan instead of cozying up to unroasted Valencias. I was embarrassed, dismayed, and of course, panicky. My mind raced: What is the research on fetal exposure to this toxin? How about me? What had I done?

I couldn’t find much data on prenatal exposure, and I didn’t look too hard. Joseph is here, and thriving and I did not need to focus on subtle behavioral effects (which there apparently are according to the animal data). Aflatoxin is, however, something that it looks best to avoid, or at least limit exposure, especially in children. It is a known liver carcinogen, and there have been cases of acute toxicity in countries where it is present in higher quantities in food (it is also in corn and other grains).

So what did I do? I tried not to dwell in the past. I switched to alternative butters (sunflower seed is fun and cheaper than almond). I won’t feed Joseph any peanut butter until he is at least 3 years old (current recommendation due to allergy concerns), and by the time he does eat it, I will have found an organic version that does some self-regulating (I heard that Arrowhead Mills monitors their levels). But the sad reality is that little Joseph and Joshua will not be raised on PBJ’s like generations before them. We will trade the Jiff, Smucker’s, Wonder Bread combo of my youth for Organic almond butter (heck, maybe pumpkin seed!), no sugar added Jam, and Ezekiel bread. Do you think they’ll know what they’re missing?