Oh, nuts! Peanuts, that is.

Lucy#1 likes peanut butter, and she has a PB&J for lunch at least once per week. She likes JIF peanut butter. (She also is trying to limit her salt intake, and has digestive issues that preclude her eating whole nuts. This may seem like TMI, but you really do need to know this. J)

Recently when I went alone to buy groceries, peanut butter for Lucy#1 was on the grocery list. That seemed easy enough to me – right until I arrived at the peanut-butter row. I have an oddball allergy to something related to the processing of peanuts and unless I’m willing to have big, itchy hives, I can eat only “natural” or “organic” peanut butter. I discovered Smuckers several years ago; that’s the brand I buy and I never even look at other peanut butters. Imagine my surprise when I saw how many varieties of JIF peanut butter were available! It took me a while to wade through the peanut-butter display, but I was eventually thrilled to see a lower-sodium JIF option. I chose a jar of creamy, lower-sodium JIF peanut butter, the label of which states it contains 90% peanuts.

Here is the conversation we had when Lucy#2 looked at the jar of JIF at home:

Lucy#1: “I can’t eat this! It’s 90% peanuts!”

Lucy#2: “Yes? Um, it’s peanut butter?”

Lucy#1: “No, I can’t eat peanuts. I can’t eat this. It’s 90% peanuts!!!”

Lucy#2: “If it didn’t contain 90% peanuts, it wouldn’t be peanut butter. The peanuts are what make it peanut butter.”

Lucy#1 (becoming pretty indignant): “But I can’t eat peanuts! You’ll have to get me something else!”

Lucy #2 (as the lightbulb f-i-n-a-l-l-y comes on): “No, no, it’s creamy peanut butter. It’s just like your other peanut butter, except with less salt. There are no chunks of peanuts, just smushed-up, creamy peanut butter.”

Lucy#1: “Oh, okay. I guess this will be all right then.”

 

This conversation is, of course, a small drop in the bucket of interesting conversations over here, but it was a real zinger for me at the time. I think I’m getting a little faster on the uptake, but I don’t know how quickly things will progress on either of our parts. I hope I can keep up.