Almond butter: same almonds, more of the calories

Almond butter is almonds with the cell walls broken open, and that changes what your body gets from them. In a controlled feeding trial on 18 adults, almond butter delivered 6.53 kcal per gram, which is what the label predicts. Whole natural almonds delivered only 4.42, because much of their fat stays locked inside intact cells and passes through undigested. That trial was part of a research programme funded by the almond industry. A chewing model put the fat potentially available for digestion in almond butter at 94.0 percent. That number comes from a lab model of chewing, not from measuring people. So a tablespoon, 16 g, really does count as about 103 kcal. Grinding may give something up as well. When the same 18 adults ate chopped or whole almonds, their gut bacteria shifted, and on almond butter no difference from eating no almonds at all was detected. Gut bacteria are only a stand-in for health, and this is one small trial that we found nobody checking a second time. The same holds for everything on this page. Every trial behind it fed almond butter as one arm next to whole or chopped almonds, all of them were small, and none tested almond butter on its own.

The numbers, per 100 g

How much is actually in it

• Creamy almond butter has 16.67 mg vitamin E per 100 g in USDA Foundation data, but 8 samples ranged from 13.33 to 22.86 mg, while fat ranged from 47.85 to 58.72 g. — USDA Foundation Foods, 8 analysed samples of creamy almond butter (n = 8 samples) Evidence E source
  Vitamin E 16.67 mg/100 g (13.33-22.86), fat 53.04 g (47.85-58.72), copper 0.975 mg (0.714-1.12)

What a real portion looks like

• A tablespoon of almond butter weighs 16 g and gives about 103 kcal and 2.7 mg vitamin E, and a sandwich portion of 32 g doubles that. — US household measures, FNDDS (n = FNDDS 5,432 foods) Evidence E source
  1 tablespoon 16 g 102.6 kcal 2.7 mg vitamin E, per sandwich 32 g 205.1 kcal 5.3 mg

What your body absorbs

• In 18 adults, the body absorbed 6.53 kcal per gram from almond butter, matching label estimates, but only 4.42 kcal per gram from whole natural almonds. — 18 healthy adults, 42 g almonds a day in each of 5 controlled diet periods, 9-day collections (n = 18) Evidence B source
  Metabolizable energy 6.53 kcal/g almond butter vs 4.42 whole natural, 4.86 whole roasted, 5.04 chopped
• In an artificial chewing model, 94.0% of the lipid in almond butter was potentially available for digestion, counting fat freed by processing plus a small amount released during chewing. — volunteers eating natural, roasted, diced almonds or almond butter, plus artificial mastication model (n = not stated in abstract) Evidence D source
  94.0% of lipid potentially available for digestion from almond butter, estimated in the mastication model, not measured absorption in people

What it does to your health

• In 18 adults eating 42 g of almonds a day for 3 weeks per form, chopped and whole almonds shifted gut bacteria, while no difference was detected between almond butter and the no-almond control. — 18 healthy adults, five 3-week controlled diet periods with washouts (n = 18) Evidence B source
  Chopped almonds raised Lachnospira, Roseburia, Oscillospira (p < 0.05), almond butter vs control no differences

Who this works differently for

• In 29 parent and child pairs, adding almonds or almond butter for 3 weeks raised Healthy Eating Index scores from 53.7 to 61.4 in both parents and children (mean age 4). — 29 parents (mean age 35) and their children (mean age 4), 1.5 oz and 0.5 oz a day, 3 weeks, crossover (n = 58) Evidence B source
  HEI-2010 53.7 to 61.4 in parents and in children (P < .001), no change in immune markers or stool frequency

What is still unknown

• In 38 adults with high cholesterol eating 100 g of almonds a day for 4 weeks, roasted almond butter lowered LDL from baseline, as all three almond forms did, but its fall in total cholesterol did not reach significance. — 38 free-living hypercholesterolaemic men and women, mean total cholesterol 245 mg/dL, heart-healthy diet, 4 weeks (n = 38) Evidence B source
  LDL lowered from baseline in all three almond forms, size not given in abstract, total cholesterol drop not significant for almond butter (smaller group), HDL slightly up

The bottom line

For everyday eating, the label number for almond butter holds. A tablespoon, 16 g, gives about 103 kcal and 2.7 mg of vitamin E, and a sandwich portion of 32 g about 205 kcal and 5.3 mg. The jar itself varies more than one label number suggests. Across 8 USDA samples, vitamin E ran from 13.33 to 22.86 mg per 100 g and fat from 47.85 to 58.72 g. If you eat almond butter for your cholesterol, the evidence behind that is one short trial. In 38 adults with high cholesterol on a heart-healthy diet, roasted almond butter lowered LDL, the "bad" cholesterol on a blood test, from its starting level, and so did the raw and roasted almonds in the same trial. The abstract gives no size for the drop. Its fall in total cholesterol did not reach statistical significance, meaning it could have been chance, and that group was smaller. The dose was 100 g a day, about six tablespoons, for four weeks, and nobody in the trial ate no almonds, so there was nothing clean to compare against. That is a dose few people eat, and we found no second trial for almond butter. For children there is one three-week trial, and it measured diet quality, not health. Parents and their children, mean age 4, added almonds or almond butter, the children at 0.5 oz a day, and both saw their Healthy Eating Index, a score of how closely a diet follows US guidelines, rise from 53.7 to 61.4. Part of that rise is built in, because adding nuts raises the score by definition. Immune markers and stool frequency did not change. One gap we have to name. Our search found no study on the safety of almond butter and no allergy record under that name, so this page has no section on who should be careful. That is an empty shelf, and it clears nothing. If almonds give you a reaction, almond butter is ground almonds, and the answer for you is the same.

Sources

1. almb-b4-06 · reference dataset
   FDC 2262074 Almond butter, creamy: Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) 16.67 mg, range 13.33-22.86, n=8 · Total lipid (fat) 53.04 g, range 47.85-58.72, n=8 · Copper 0.975 mg, range 0.714-1.12
   USDA FoodData Central Foundation Foods, release 2026-04-30 · checked 2026-09-23
2. almb-b4-07 · reference dataset
   FNDDS 2707533 Almond butter: Energy 641 kcal/100 g, 1 tablespoon 16 g 102.6 kcal · Vitamin E 16.57 mg/100 g, 1 tablespoon 2.7 mg · per sandwich 32 g 205.1 kcal 5.3 mg
   USDA FNDDS 2021-2023 · checked 2026-09-23
3. almb-b4-01 · randomised crossover trial
   Measured ME (kcal g-1) of whole natural almonds (4.42), whole roasted almonds (4.86), and chopped almonds (5.04) was significantly lower than predicted with Atwater factors (P < 0.001); ME of almond butter (6.53 kcal g-1) was similar to predicted (P = 0.08).
   Food Funct, 2016 · checked 2026-09-23
4. almb-b4-02 · randomised trial with lab model
   The total lipid potentially available for digestion in AB was 94.0%, which included the freely available lipid resulting from the initial sample processing and the further small amount of lipid released from the intact almond particles during mastication.
   Nutrients, 2018 · checked 2026-09-23
5. almb-b4-04 · randomised crossover trial
   chopped almonds increased Lachnospira, Roseburia, and Oscillospira compared to control (p < 0.05), while whole almonds increased Dialister compared to control (p = 0.007). There were no differences between almond butter and control.
   Nutrients, 2018 · checked 2026-09-23
6. almb-b4-05 · randomised crossover trial
   Consuming almonds increased total Healthy Eating Index score from 53.7 ± 1.8 to 61.4 ± 1.4 (parents) and 53.7 ± 2.6 to 61.4 ± 2.2 (children; P < .001).
   Nutr Res, 2016 · checked 2026-09-23
7. almb-b4-03 · randomised controlled trial
   All three forms of almonds in the context of a heart-healthy diet significantly lowered low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL) from baseline to the completion of the study. Both raw and roasted almonds significantly lowered TC, whereas the decrease by almond butter (in a smaller cohort) did not reach statistical significance.
   J Am Coll Nutr, 2003 · checked 2026-09-23