If kids are going to eat that much peanut butter, they better like the ingredients. To find out which kids prefer, I invited my 12-year-old daughter, [Sasha Robins], and a number of neighbors ranging in age from 4 to 12 for a "blind" testing of eight different types of peanut butter. All jars were covered with orange construction paper and numbered. To even the field, all peanut butters were creamy and served on quartered slices of Wonder Bread. Palates were cleared with water; all refused the offer of milk, which had been the universal peanut butter companion of my childhood.

A close reading of the labels showed little nutritional variation between, say, regular Skippy or [Jif] and the organic, no-salt or low-fat peanut butters. The Polaner Natural No Salt had only 5 mgs. of sodium (Tree of Life Organic Valencia had none), while others ranged from 120 mgs. (Smuckers Natural), to 160 mgs. for Foodtown creamy). The [Polaner] had the same amount of protein as [Skippy] creamy (9 grams); Tree of Life Organic had more calories from fat (135) than either Jif creamy (130) or [Peter Pan] Smart Choice (100).

It wasn't until our kid panelists tasted the final container of peanut butter, ground fresh in a neighborhood health-food store, that they figured how manufacturers could improve their products. They kind of liked the fact that, as Sasha put it, "it tastes just like peanuts," but all found it a little bland, the flavor true but uninteresting. They wondered why no one made peanut butter with the texture of Skippy or Jif, with less salt and sugar, without banishing those elements altogether.