Ah, is there anything better than peanut butter? In my mind, no. I love it and even though I feel like it’s been pushed to the side over the years as other nut butters have burst onto the scene, I have continued to stay loyal.

In class this week we were going through the B Complex Vitamins and we got to Vitamin B3 (otherwise known as Niacin). The RDA for this vitamin is, 14 mg a day for woman and 16 mg a day for men. Well guess what, in looking over the food sources of Vitamin B3 (Niacin), low and behold, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter is listed as a good source containing 4.3 mg. When I fact checked that with the Extra Crunchy Skippy Jar I have at my desk, I saw that it contained 3.2 mg (so pretty close). That’s 20% of your Daily Value.

And even though it may make sense to eat a food source that’s closer to the RDA many of those sources aren’t as readily available daily and/or may not appeal to our taste buds. Tuna, Swordfish, Salmon, Halibut & Beef are among the top sources, things I don’t eat. Hence, why I focused on peanut butter.

And since we’re talking about this fun vitamin, listen to this, when you eat protein, an amino acid in the protein called tryptophan, you know the word that’s always associated with turkey and thanksgiving? that actually synthesizes to Niacin in the body. So you can eat Niacin and make Niacin. About 60 mg of tryptophan generates 1 mg of Niacin. And every 1 gram of complete protein has about 10 mg of tryptophan. So to overly simplify that, let’s just say 1 oz of chicken contains 6 grams of protein. That 1 oz will generate 1 mg of Niacin Equivalent.

So you have some peanut butter and some complete protein and you’re on your way to satisfying your bodies need for Niacin (Vitamin B3)

And why should you care about Niacin? Because it is important for energy metabolism. Yey Metabolism!