NFL Players Have An Overwhelming Craving For Uncrustables
You'd normally think of Uncrustables as a convenient crustless peanut butter and jelly option for kids, but lots of adults love them too, both for on-the-go snacking and for quick meals. (After resisting them for so long, they're finally growing on me.) While some parents might be skeptical about the nutritional value of Uncrustables, it turns out that these PB-and-J snacks are an unexpectedly efficient energy delivery system for athletes: specifically, NFL players.
Sports publication, The Athletic posted a piece last month after finding out that NFL teams blow through not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of Uncrustables in a week. That's because these snacks hit sort of a sweet spot (literally) in nutrition terms. The bread and jelly deliver a quick boost of energy from carbohydrates, while there's additional fat and protein in the peanut butter to give some extra mileage. Are they a sports nutritionist's dream food? Eh, probably not, but they're certainly convenient. And with peanut butter and jelly being such an extremely popular combo (seriously, people have tons of suggestions on how to eat the PB and J), these treats have tackled their way into locker rooms to the tune of over 80,000 Uncrustables per year.
This is the team that eats the most Uncrustables
Out of all the NFL teams that really enjoy Uncrustables, it turns out the Denver Broncos love them the most. The Athletic estimates that the team crushes an astounding 700 of them per week. That beats the runners-up, the Seattle Seahawks, by over double — in comparison, they eat a paltry 320 of the round, pillowy discs each week. The next team down is the Jacksonville Jaguars, coming in at roughly 315 per week.
Uncrustables might seem like a pretty straightforward snack, but they did initially take some engineering. We all know that the wild card, when it comes to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, is the jelly. Leaking jelly can easily make the bread soggy and make it more likely to spill — a concern for kids and adults who have to eat on the run, but also for professional athletes who don't want to stain their jerseys. So the real trick with the Uncrustables' design is achieving the supreme PB-to-J ratio and encasing the jelly in a pod of peanut butter so that it doesn't leak. Bring on halftime.