Is a peanut butter sandwich a balanced meal?

Define "balanced meal".

My general answer would be no. Bread is a pretty simple carb, and you're looking at 200+ calories from 2 slices of bread, all simple carbs. The glycemic response from that would be: not good.

At least the fat in peanut butter will reduce the glycemic load.

And then most peanut butter has added sugars unless you specifically buy peanut butter without sugar.

More than that, most peanut butter has a lot of hydrogenated vegetable fats which are likely much worse than a bit of sugar.

If the package doesn't have a tablespoon of peanut oil or so pooling at the top when you first open it, that you then need to mix it in, it's hydrogenated.
- Raw/natural PB tastes so much better anyways. I can’t buy anything else since I’ve tasted it.
- You can also check the ingredients. It should have exactly one ingredient, and that's peanuts. Maybe salt too.
- Don't forget that the valuable peanut oil is separated hydraulically which fractures the peanut meal, and then they add back cheaper soybean oil.
  
  (Side note: That's why it separates, and that's why even organic peanut butter separates, it's because it's been hydraulically fractured)
  
  In my opinion, the only peanut butter that is worth a damn is fresh crushed from unsalted roasted peanuts.
- What's wrong with hydrogenated oil? I thought it was specifically partially hydrogenated was what was bad.
- Like 50% of all peanut butter at the supermarket is "natural," meaning it's just peanuts and salt (or no salt.) only the skippy/jif bullshit has hydrogenated veggie oil.
It will never stop being disturbing that there's sugar in peanut butter in the US. If I didn't know it was true I'd think it was a joke. Outside the US peanut butter is just peanuts and salt, that's it.
- In my experience it's usually just peanuts. That's the only kind I buy. You can find it with sugar and / or salt but that's a minority.
  
  It really is weird how US has to ruin every kind of food to make it more unhealthy. All this while not having a real healthcare too.
- The bread has about three times as much sugar in it too
  
  So basically to answer OP's question -
  
  No. That's dessert 😂
- It’s not nearly as much sugar added as I expected. Jif, which seems to be the most popular brand, has 2 grams of added sugar in a 33 gram serving, for a total of 3 grams of sugar (peanuts seem to naturally produce some sugar). Comparing that to Costco’s Kirkland Select natural peanut butter, which only has peanuts and salt for ingredients, a 32 gram serving has 1 gram of total sugar. So the total sugar Jif adds is twice as much as would naturally be present, but still makes up only 6% of the serving. It’s sweeter, but not dramatically sweeter. It’s not like it’s been turned into Nutella, which has 19 grams of added sugar in a 37 gram serving, or 51% of the serving.
What nutritional goals are you assuming? Not everyone is trying to minimize caloric intake. Personally I need to make sure I actually eat enough in a day due to appetite curbing effects from my neurodivergence and medication. PB&J is in my experience the highest calories for cost and effort. It's dirt cheap, almost effortless to make, and has a decent number of calories.
I make a peanut butter concoction subbing a whole grain like spelt for the bread and using pb that is just peanuts. Would that be considered any better?

The only time I've ever heard the term "balanced meal" is in a commercial for super unhealthy foods, so I'm not even sure "a balanced meal" is real and not just a buzzword used to sell sugar for breakfast.

Lol, that's kinda true actually

Too much sugar, and likely not a ton of fiber.

is it balanced? no is it perfect? yes

Bro, no.

You've got some minimal protein, mostly carbs and fat. You're hurting for protein the most, but fiber is way short, and carbs are way high.

If you're a 20 something you can look amazing on a diet of vodka and cigarettes, but at 30 or so a PB sando is not gonna cut it. You'll be needing a protein, a leafy green, and a healthy fat. The carbs will basically always take care of themselves.

most sandwich bread in the us is processed garbage. if you had homemade or another high quality bread then itd be different. i tried daves killer for awhile and even gave that up because it still tastes so sweet.

I make this every week because you can't buy white bread without a billion preservatives and whatnot https://www.theflavorbender.com/japanese-milk-bread-recipe-hokkaido-milk-bread/

I think most bread that's available to buy is actually junk. Even the 'wholemeal' stuff, which itself obfuscates what you actually want: wholegrain. Ideally, the carbs percentage shouldn't be more than 5 times the fibre percentage (according to the 'How not to die' book), but I've found that very little that actually meets that.

This is why people can become obese without understanding why: the over-processing of food considered as staples.

This How Not To Die book?

That sounds worth a read. I'll check it out. Thanks!
- That's the book I was referring to, yep.

Mainly sugar, oil and fat and carbs from the wheat.

Pick a good bread that’s low in fat & sugar, and high in fiber, and pair it with a glass of milk to ensure a complete protein is formed with the PB, and you’re good.

Add in sliced banana for some sweetness, and toast that bread first (so your PB gets gooey) for a real treat!

Also all natural peanut butter. None of that icing sugar or hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Add some honey to this if you want another sweet treat that’s fairly healthy to add. I basically want to die of sweetness so honey just hits on top of that toasted goodness 🤤

No, but if you use natural peanut butter (even Costco has natural peanut butter) and an actual a whole wheat bread without all the additives, it isn't the worst meal. Maybe throw a sliced banana in there to help round it out.

It has the "stuff", but not in the ideal proportions. It's not balanced at all. Even if you made the bread and the PB yourself, avoiding the processed filler that companies use, that'd still be, at best, a snack: something that's good to eat, but never to fill yourself with.

It really depends on your goals and alternatives. I like to think of foods on a spectrum. The worst: drugs and candy. The best: depends on your goals. The PB sandwich is completely fine to eat if you enjoy it and it's working for you.

I think you might need to qualify which country you are talking about.

In the US, where both bread and peanut butter are both hyper-processed, then no.

US bread is very different from European bread. Outside of the general quality of the key ingredients, and banned fillers and preservatives, US bread has huge amounts of sugar.

Similarly, the quality of peanut butter is very different. In particular, there's a push against the use of palm oil in peanut butter.

So, while it's probably not optimal for long-term nutrition in either case, I think where you are getting the food from probably makes a difference.

If you use something like PB2 (defatted peanut butter) and don't use a lot of a sugary jam (consider fresh fruit instead) then you should be okay

It's horrible for the body. Don't understand why people eat it, and on white bread sandwiches!!

May as well sign up for fat camp discounts.

Healthy breakfast is tea, oatmeal porridge, greek yoghurt, some fruits, eggs, vegetables. If you are going to eat bread, pick ones with dark bread and fibers.

You… don’t know why people eat an incredibly cheap, filling, and tasty sandwich?
oi mate you got your nut oil loiscence?