jmk wrote:

> On 3/3/2004 12:09 PM, Peggy Sullivan wrote:
>> jmk wrote:
>>> On 3/3/2004 11:09 AM, Peggy Sullivan wrote:
>>>> jmk wrote:
>>>>> On 3/3/2004 10:47 AM, Peggy Sullivan wrote:
>>>>>> jmk wrote [about the amount of transfats in one serving of Skippy]
>>>>>>
>>>>> About one gram per serving (I aske them and I think it as .8 or
>>>>> something) is not zero, it's still a gram more than is necessary.
>>>>> It's not as if natural peanut butter is difficult to come by.
>>>>>
>>>> Who did you ask?
>>>
>>> The folks at Skippy. I e-mailed them and they left me a phone
>>> message that same day.
>>>
>>
>> I'm confused then. I have emailed them myself to see what they have to
>> say.
>>
>> If what you say is true then the statement on their web site about
>> Skippy being a trans fat free food is false and the scientists at the
>> USDA that did the study described at:
>>
>> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2001/010612.htm
>>
>> are badly wrong, as are all the other websites I found that also
>> refer to the same results.
>>
>> Perhaps however, the 0.8 grams (or something) is the quantity of
>> hydrogenated oils added -- almost all of which are not trans fats
>> according to the USDA study.
>>
>> Peggy
>
>
> Right. That's why I e-mailed them. It says 0 but I think that it means
> "less than 1." I wanted to confirm that. Anyway, I like natural peanut
> butter and it is readily available so that is what I get. It was more a
> curiosity thing that anything.
>

As I said above, I emailed them also, and finally got a reply, copied
below, that does not support your .8 g figure, but instead refers
to the work described at the USDA site mentioned above. The numbers
in that work imply that you would need to consume 20 or more 18 oz
jars of Skippy to ingest one gram of trans fats. So as I said earlier,
trans fats are not the reason to avoid Skippy, although taste preferences
or the sugar content may be.

Here is the email I got from Skippy:

> Hi Peggy,
>
> Thanks so much for writing!
>
> A recent evaluation of commercial peanut butter, including Skippy,
> conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture confirms that
> only trace amounts of "trans fats" were found, significantly below the
> minimum level proposed for labeling. By FDA definition, Skippy peanut
> butter is a trans-fat free food.
>
> Here are some additional facts:
>
> -The fat must be labeled "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" per FDA
> regulations. It does not have the same structure as most partially
> hydrogenated fats that do contribute "trans fats"
> -Only a small amount of stabilizer is used to prevent oil separation on a
> serving size basis.
> -The same level of "trans fats" was found in peanut butter that does not
> contain stabilizers (natural) and traditional peanut butter.
> -Trans Fatty Acids occur naturally in meat and dairy products. TFA's are
> produced during the hydrogenations of vegetable oil, a process that adds
> hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids in vegetable oil in order to change
> the fat from a liquid to a solid state.
>
> How can peanut butter be categorized as having no trans fat if it contains
> partially hydrogenated vegetable oil?
>
> -A study by Dr. Tim Sanders of USDA/ARS revealed that the level of trans
> fat in 6 samples of regular peanut butter (less than 0.001 g trans fat per
> 1 oz. serving) is well below the proposed FDA cut off of less than 0.5
> grams for labeling a product as "zero grams trans fat."
>
> Thanks for your interest!
> Your friends at Skippy