> > > In the interests of international research, my supermarket has (from memory) two brands of peanut butter besides their house brand. These are Sanitarium and ETA. I can't think of any brands of peanut butter apart from those.
> >
> > Sanitarium? *Sanitarium?* You have a peanut butter called Sanitarium? Whoa. "Have my ears gone insane?"
> >
> > I'm not sure if that makes me worship NZ culture more or not. All I can say is: that's a pretty ruling name for a product as sedate as peanut butter. :-}
>
> Sanitarium? I don't know what that means in NZ, but in my zip code, it's the nut house, the bug house, the funny farm, the hospital for the insane. (Teachers' Retirement Home?)

The company was started in the early days of the century by Seventh Day Adventists, who have some sort of health food thing as part of their religion. A sanitarium, back in those days, was the equivalent of a health resort, I think, or whatever you call those places where rich people go to get pampered and unstressed. Nowadays, however, every NZer would only see the word as meaning "a brand of cereals and spreads".

Brunnen-"likes your other explanation better though"G