Peanut Butter: Nutritional Benefits, Calories & Health Considerations

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a classic lunch meal. Kids and adults alike can benefit from the nutrition that can be found in peanut butter, but there are positives and negatives to adding peanut butter to your diet.

Serving

• Multiple styles and brands of peanut butter are on the market. This guide focuses on the USDA serving of 2 tablespoons of smooth-style peanut butter, with salt added.

Calories

• Peanut butter is high in calories due to the fat content of peanuts. One serving of peanut butter has 188 calories.

Fat

• Peanuts are high in fat and unfortunately, this fat content translates to peanut butter. There are 16 grams of fat in every serving of peanut butter. That is 25 percent of the daily recommended intake.

Dietary Fiber

• Peanut butter can be a good source of dietary fiber. There are 2 grams in every serving, accounting for 8 percent of your daily recommended amount.

Protein

• Peanut butter is an excellent source of protein. Every serving has 8 grams of protein, or 16 percent of your daily recommended amount.