Not Peanut Butter

Growing up with an older brother that was highly allergic to peanut butter was always tough. At an early age my brother found out the hard way that he was allergic to peanuts. He was given a peanut butter sandwich for lunch in his preschool class and started getting hives all over his body. He went into anaphylactic shock shortly after. He did survive but found out that he was severely allergic. In response my parents stopped keeping peanut products in the house for my brother’s safety. I wasn’t allowed to have any in case I was in the same boat as him. As a result, I have never tasted Reese’s pieces, or Five Guys, most granola bars, and certainly not peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Still to this day I have not had a peanut or anything containing it. Instead, I have substituted. Sunflower-seed and Soy-nut butter, among other foods, are a way for peanut-allergic people to get the same benefits as peanut butter. A couple years ago when I tried it, I wasn’t too fond of the taste or the smell, but now I swear by Sunflower Seed butter. Sunflower Seed butter is a rich paste made of seeds and oil that shadows peanut butter. Anything you can do with peanut butter can be accomplished with sun-butter; sun-butter and jelly, sun-butter and banana on toast, and it can even be mixed into a smoothie for added protein. One of my roommates who can have peanut butter but stopped because of my allergy started eating sun-butter (sunflower seed) and hasn’t turned back since. It is a pretty good alternative and a healthy one at that. We usually snag a bag of bagels from one of the dining halls and keep it in the room. When I am studying in the room and want to eat some chips I can instead spread some sun-butter on a bagel and satisfy my hunger. If you are interested in trying soy-nut or sun-butter, there are also other alternatives such as almond-butter, cashew butter, and even cookie butter (doesn’t provide the same health benefits).