National Peanut Butter Day!!

National Peanut Butter Day- January 24, 2012

It’s National Peanut Butter Day! The average person consumes more than six pounds of peanut products each year. Women and children prefer creamy peanut butter, while most men go for the chunky variety. It takes 550 peanuts to make a 12 ounce jar of peanut butter. Peanuts are cholesterol free and an excellent source of protein. In fact, it’s the high protein content that causes peanut butter to stick to the roof of your mouth. A doctor in St. Louis created peanut butter in 1890 as a remedy for bad teeth. It became very popular with the doctor's patients, but the oil often separated from the grainy solids. In 1933, a California packer was able to homogenize the peanuts into a spreadable butter.

To celebrate National Peanut Butter Day, bake some peanut butter cupcakes like me, spread some tasty peanut butter on toast, or enjoy a spoonful right out of the jar!

Fun Peanut Buttery Facts!

• There are enough peanuts in one acre to make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches.
• If your average peanut butter sandwich is 4 inches by 4 inches (16 square inches), then 16 in^2 x 30,000 = 480,000 in^2 ; 1 in^2 = 0.0006944444 ft^2 480,000 in^2 x .000944444 ft^2/1 in^2 = 333 1/3 ft^2  1 ft^2 = 2.29 x 10^-5 acres 333 1/3 ft^2 x 2.29 x 10^-5 acres = .00763 acres. One acre of peanuts can make enough peanut butter sandwiches to cover about 1/131st of an acre. 
• By law, any product labeled "peanut butter" in the United States must be at least 90 percent peanuts. 
• 89 percent Peanuts? Not in my town, varmint!
• Peanut butter was first introduced to the USA in 1904 at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis by C.H. Sumner, who sold $705.11 of the "new treat" at his concession stand.
• Adjusted for inflation, that's $17,627.75 2011 US dollars. That's enough to buy 9,848 King Size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (4 peanut butter cups) at $1.79 per package*. If a person were to consume all of those peanut butter cups, he or she would have consumed a total of 98,480 grams of saturated fat.
• *sales tax not taken into calculation
• In 1884, Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec was the first person to patent peanut butter.
• Quebec, a province of Canada (a vast empire suspiciously looming over our contiguous United States) was settled by a French-speaking civilization in the late Mesozoic era*. Tall tales of maple-syrup filled baguettes and lumberjacks with pencil thin moustaches dominate this blogger's idea of the strange and foreign land.
• *citation needed
• Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a physician wanting to help patients eat more plant-based protein, patented his procedure for making peanut butter in 1895.
• Kellogg like Tony the Tiger? GRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!
• Americans were first introduced to the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in 1928.  
• I think the introduction may have been the other way around, unless the peanut butter cup is more polite and talkative than your normal snack food.
• Peanut butter was the secret behind "Mr. Ed," TV's talking horse.
• Wholesome comedy or animal cruelty? You decide.
• Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
• What has a roof but no floor?
• A mouth.
• The oldest operating manufacturer and seller of peanut butter has been selling peanut butter since 1908.
• If this company were a man, and he started his business at the age of 21 in 1908, that would make him about 124 years old by now. 
• The world's largest peanut butter factory churns out 250,000 jars of the tasty treat every day.
• Two peanut farmers have been elected president of the USA - Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.
• Coincidence? I think not. Peanuts are now confirmed to have mind-altering properties.
• Grand Saline, TX holds the title for the world's largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich weighing in at 1,342 pounds.
• If that peanut butter sandwich was a contestant on The Biggest Loser, ...you know what, I'm not even going to do the math on this one, the joke is already out there
• Astronaut Allen B. Sheppard brought a peanut with him to the moon.
• Why? Seriously, I kind of want to know.
• Tom Miller pushed a peanut to the top of Pike's Peak (14,100 feet) using his nose in 4 days, 23 hours, 47 minutes and 3 seconds.
• Um...what?
• Adrian Finch of Australia holds the Guinness World Record for peanut throwing, launching the lovable legume 111 feet and 10 inches in 1999 to claim the record.
• I stopped reading after "lovable legume". I have never laughed so hard at alliteration. 
• As early as 1500 B.C., the Incas of Peru used peanuts as sacrificial offerings and entombed them with their mummies to aid in the spirit life.
• Dead guys need protein too? Okay, I admit that was lame, I'm running out of material- thankfully, this list is over.