What’s Healthier: Almond Butter or Peanut Butter?

With nuts commonly touted as the Next Best Health Food it’s easy to buy a tonne of them and devour them in their many forms – raw, in nut butters, incorporated into sweet & savoury dishes – but the underlying questions is: which nut butter is best for you? Or, more accurately, which nut butter has the best overall nutritional profile?

So for my analysis I looked at two of the most common nuts which are not only eaten raw as a tasty snack, but make up the most commonly eaten nut butter in the UK – almonds & peanuts.

Best For Calories: Almond Butter

Almond butter is lower in calories, with 190 calories in a serving (two tablespoons) vs. 210 calories in a serving of peanut butter. The majority of these calories are from healthy fats – monounsaturated fats, which have been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease.

Best For Carbs: Almond Butter

Almond butter has fewer net carbs than peanut butter due to its higher fibre content.

Best for healthy fats: Almond Butter

Both peanut butter and almond butter are high in monounsaturated fats with around 17gram per serving each. When it comes to saturated fat, almond butter has only 1.5grams whilst peanut butter has 2 grams per serving. Ideally, healthy eaters should keep their saturated fat intake as low as possible.

Protein: Peanut Butter

We all know nut butters are prime sources of protein with more protein per serving than an egg. Peanut butter is the winner for protein content, with 7grams per serving, vs almond butter’s 6 grams.

Related posts: White Chocolate Pavlova Peanut Butter Cups Recipe

Worried about the extra 1g? Check out this gorgeous protein cake bite recipe which uses cashew & almond butter for double the protein punch.

Micronutrients: Almond Butter (only slightly)

The micronutrients are the parts that make up the healthfulness of a food. Almonds are full of antioxidants, vitamin E (1 ounce of almond provides 37% of your RDA), and magnesium (one serving contains 20% of the daily value). Peanuts are full of calcium, iron, phosphorus, copper, potassium, selenium, and zinc.

Best For Overall Nutritional Make-Up: Almond Butter

ALMOND BUTTER! Wins on all fronts except for protein, where it only loses out to peanut butter by 1g.

However…

Best For Price: Peanut Butter

With a greater nutritional composition comes a greater price, with almond butter around a whopping 185% more expensive than peanut butter (based on 1kg sample of Meridian nut butter – Almond butter £14.95 and peanut butter £5.25). This is by and the large the main reason peanut butter is the most common nut butter in the UK market right now, and to be honest one of the main reasons it’s my go-to if I’m ever craving something creamy & good for me.

If the price of almond butter is just too much to swallow, try cashew butter instead – it has all the health benefits of almond butter but is around 13% cheaper (based on Meridian cashew butter £12.95 for 1kg).

If you need healthy recipe inspiration for using your peanut butter, take a look at these healthy chickpea peanut butter cookies and these amazing pistachio cheesecake protein cookies.