There is something nostalgic about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, whether it be memories from picnics or days sitting in the elementary school cafeteria. There are also numerous amounts of research about peanut butter and how it helps people lose weight and decrease risk in health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Peanut butter overall has a small place in most people’s hearts.

First, peanut butter has a special place in my heart because of the memories I associate with it, most of which revolve around my food experimentation when I first started running and swimming daily. During insanely long swim meets, peanut butter and crackers gave me fast and reliable energy and helped start a couple friendships. It also allowed for an easy transition between all the daily activity- it wasn’t hard to make, but it was quick and easy to digest, getting me the most out of my workouts.

Second, peanut butter, in my opinion, tastes better than almond butter. There is something about the semi-sweet nutty flavor that always satisfies an after-practice sugar craving. To me, almond butter is too sweet.

Peanut butter is also less runny than almond butter. As someone who eats peanut butter on the daily (and typically in a rush), a runny butter is never fun because it’s messy. When I’m already in a rush, the last thing that I want to do is clean up a mess. Peanut butter also spreads better on toast (and when in a rush is very handy), whereas in my experience with almond butter, it’s hard to not spread and dash, even when its been in the fridge.

Third, from the perspective of an athlete, peanut butter is better because it has more protein compared to almond butter. Getting enough protein in the training week is important because it helps build muscle and assists in recovering quickly from a long and hard work out.

However, with this said, almond butter does have more nutritional fats, vitamins and minerals. Almond and peanut butter are both composed of monounsaturated fats, which is the type of fat linked to a reduction in heart disease and lower blood sugar. Almond butter has 25 percent less of this fat in it, which can be considered as good because too much monounsaturated fats can lead to elevated levels of cholesterol. The one area that almond butter does have peanut butter beat is the amount of vitamin E in it. Almond butter has three times as much of this vitamin than peanut butter. Vitamin E helps from keeping a person’s arteries from being clogged.