Here’s the latest and greatest in potentially dangerous caffeinated products out there on the market.
Steem peanut butter is marketed as a natural peanut butter, no artificial sweeteners, bla bla bla…. and just for that extra ‘boost’, it contains 150mg of caffeine per 2 tbsp serving. That’s a little more caffeine that you would find in a small Tim Horton’s coffee.
While this may not seem like an over-the-top amount of caffeine for an adult, in reality many people eat more than 2 tbsp of peanut butter when they get into it – why, just as Steem’s website encourages:
“Just jam a knife or a spoon or a finger into the jar and eat it like you do when no one’s looking. Yes you do. Yes, you do.”
I am SO not impressed!
More importantly, peanut butter is popular with children, and children should NOT be ingesting caffeine. I notice that Steem warns against giving their product to animals, but they say nothing about dangers to children. Energy drinks (which are dangerous) are heavily marketed to teens, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Steem has teens on their radar to target as well.
The FDA is not happy about Steem’s caffeination of their peanut butter either, and has asked the company for more information about their product.
Steem peanut butter joins a long list of other caffeinated products out there, which have their potential dangers – but this one is perhaps particularly dangerous as watching for caffeine intake isn’t really on anyone’s radar when they are cracking open their peanut butter jar.
There is no role or need for caffeination of any food product. Until the FDA starts regulating natural food products (which may not ever happen), there is no safety guard protecting consumers against this or any other natural food product or supplement.