Peanut butter - evil or genius?

[Spindarella]

This week I've had peanut butter on krackerwheat wheat and rye crackers for lunch. As well as being lovely, it also does the up-to-now-unachievable feat of keeping me full until tea time. Moreso than the sandwiches or salads I used to have.

So, calorie wise, I think it's ok - probably coming in at less than 300 calories for my lunch WHICH KEEPS ME FULL.

But is the trade off the far content? Does it matter? 58g fat per 100g in the peanut butter and 17-18g fat per 100g in the crackers.

Is the fat trade off worth it for the low calories (34 per cracker, plus about a teaspoon of peanut buuter on each so probably 35 for that - total 70 calories and have about 4) and the fullness?

Is peanut butter a genius diet food or will I be twice the size in two weeks?

You would have to eat a very small quantity of peanut butter and crackers to stay under 300kcal - did you weigh your food?

Spooned it out - used the info on the wrapper which said 1 tablespoon is 100 cal so then divided by 3 to give teaspoon amount. Don't think I've gone far too wrong with measurements.

It very much depends which peanut butter you're eating. Ones which are just made of squished up peanuts (perhaps with a teeny bit of salt) like the Meridian brand (from H&B and sometimes Sains and Waitrose) is great. Others have added palm oil and sugar (e.g. Sunpat, Whole Earth, supermarket own brands) and are bad. You can tell these dodgy ones as the oil doesn't separate out (in the natural ones you get a big layer of nut oil on the top when you first open them which might seem yukky but is actually a good sign and once you've stirred it in well it won't reappear - unless you left the jar undisturbed for months. An even better choice would be another nut butter like almond, hazelnut or cashew. Yum.
If the calories are controlled then it's a pretty healthy, nutritious lunch.