Sunflower Butter Vs Peanut Butter – How Do They Compare?

If you're allergic to peanut butter, sunflower seed butter can be a great alternative! However, even if you don't have an allergy, it can be great to add both peanut butter and sunflower butter to your diet. We have researched what the difference is between the two and how each can impact your health.

Peanut butter is made of peanuts, and sunflower butter is made of sunflower seeds. Many people with peanut allergies use SunButter instead. However, they are drastically different. Sunflower seed butter has more vitamin E, iron, and significantly less saturated fat than peanut butter.

So, is sunflower seed butter healthier than peanut butter? We will discuss that, as well as if they can be substituted for one another. Also, we have researched if they can help with weight loss and many other interesting facts about these spreads.

A collage of peanut butter and sunflower butter, Sunflower Butter Vs Peanut Butter - How Do They Compare?

What Is The Difference Between SunButter And Peanut Butter?

Even though sunflower seed butter and peanut butter are both plant-based spreads, the similarities stop there. They have vastly different nutrient profiles, textures, and tastes.

Nutrient Profiles

Sunflower seed butter has a much higher mineral content than peanut butter. It has four times as much iron and vitamin E as peanut butter. In addition to that, it also has more magnesium, manganese, selenium, phosphorous, copper, and zinc.

Most peanut butter, except all-natural peanut butter, has 30% more saturated fat because of the oils added to them. If you want to buy peanut butter with a similar fat content to sunflower butter, you should get all-natural peanut butter with no oil added. Sunflower seed butter has tons of monounsaturated fat, which is considered to be the healthiest.

Both kinds of butter have a similar amount of protein, but peanut butter has slightly more at seven grams per serving. In addition to having more protein, peanut butter has about 10 to 20 fewer calories than sunflower butter.

Texture

SunButter is thicker than peanut butter. However, it is usually mixed with a little bit of sunflower oil that lightens it up slightly.

Peanut butter tends to be oilier because it often has palm oil added to the peanut butter, and peanuts tend to have more oil than sunflower seeds. Natural peanut butter usually only has peanuts and no palm oil.

Taste

When you taste peanut butter, it is a very strong flavor. SunButter is a milder, more earthy taste. It tastes like sunflower seeds do. However, as it can be a little bit bitter, sugar is often added to the butter to make it sweeter.

However, peanut butter usually has a sweeter taste because it has about twice as much sugar. SunButter has about 1.7 grams of sugar per serving, and the average peanut butter has three grams.

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Health Benefits

Both sunflower seed butter and peanut butter are dense in healthy fats and high in protein. They can help your skin, your brain and be helpful when building muscles.

In addition to that, both spreads can help prevent cancer, heart disease and assist with blood sugar control. However, they each have their own unique benefits worth mentioning.

Peanut Butter

Top view of a sliced bread scattered with peanut butter on top surrounded by a kitchen knife with peanut butter on the tip, whole and peeled peanuts

The oleic acid content in peanut butter can help protect against heart disease and diabetes. Oleic acid reduces the body's insulin resistance, which keeps your blood sugar more stable.

Peanut butter is rich in antioxidants that help repair the body's cells. As a result, peanut butter can help protect against cancer, obesity, heart disease, and cognitive decline.

As a source of healthy fats, peanut butter can be beneficial when trying to lose weight. When consumed as part of a healthy diet and in the proper portion size, it will promote fullness and help prevent overeating.

Sunflower Seed Butter

A small dish of fresh sunflower seed butter with rice cakes

For someone who has arthritis, sunflower seed butter can help lessen the pain. It also can help increase bone health. A high vitamin E content means that this seed butter helps repair your skin from sun damage.

SunButter will increase your immune system because of the amount of zinc and selenium in it. Zinc helps your body make immune cells. Selenium reduces inflammation and helps fight off infections.

When you're pregnant, sunflower seed butter is really good for you because it has tons of folate. Folate is essential during pregnancy for the growth of the baby. The high level of magnesium will reduce stress, anxiety, and migraines.

One last benefit of sunflower butter is that it is allergen-free. For people who have food allergies, this is a fantastic substitute.

Is Sunflower Butter Good For Weight Loss?

Sunflower seeds and sunflower butter are incredibly healthy. As a result, they can help with weight loss. However, it is important to be mindful of portion size because they are extremely calorie-dense.

In addition to portion size, make sure to avoid butters or seeds with a lot of added sugar and added salt. Added sugar only adds flavor and calories, not nutrition. Too much salt while losing weight can lead to water retention.

Is Sunflower Seed Butter An Anti-Inflammatory?

Earlier in the article, we discussed briefly that this kind of butter can help reduce arthritis pain. This is because the antioxidants in the spread make it very effective at reducing inflammation in the body. When you have arthritis, inflammation makes your joints extremely painful, and sunflower seed butter reduces this.

Studies have shown consuming seeds, including sunflower seeds, five or more times a week reduced the body's inflammation. As a result, eating seeds can lower your risk for diseases caused by inflammation.

Can You Substitute SunButter For Peanut Butter In Baking?

For people with allergies, SunButter is a great substitute. You can use it anywhere, and in the same amount, you would use peanut butter.

What Do You Do With Sunflower Butter?

Sunflower butter on whole wheat toasted bread with sunflower seeds on white plate withe sunflower seeds on lace table runner

Sunflower seed butter is excellent with jelly or as a topping for toast. A few more great ideas are to make cookies, snacks, bars, and other treats. Keep in mind that it won't taste the same as peanut butter due to SunButter's unique flavor.

What's Healthier: Sunflower Butter Or Peanut Butter?

While peanut butter is more classic, sunflower seed butter seems to surpass it in nutrition levels. While they contain similar minerals and have similar benefits, SunButter has far more nutrients and far less of the unhealthy fats included in peanut butter.

To top it all off, sunflower seeds are considered healthier than peanuts. As a result, it can be concluded that SunButter is healthier. However, they are both relatively healthy and can be included as part of a healthy diet.

Other Peanut Butter Substitutes

While peanut butter and sunflower butter are amazingly nutritious, sometimes you may not have either on hand. There are some other peanut butter substitutes you can use.

Almond butter is healthier than peanut butter. However, it should only be used by people who aren't allergic to tree nuts. If you do have a nut allergy, you can also use soy butter and pea butter.

Soy butter is made of toasted soybeans. Out of all these alternatives, this one tastes the most like peanut butter! Pea butter is gluten-free and made of brown peas.

Final Thoughts

Sunflower seed butter and peanut butter have different ingredients and different nutrition profiles. They both have a good amount of protein and tons of health benefits. When it comes to nutrition, SunButter is superior.

You can substitute peanut butter for SunButter, or vice versa, in recipes. You can also use almond butter, soy butter, or pea butter. The taste will be slightly different but still delicious.

If you enjoyed this post, click below to check out some of our other posts!

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