I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one. If your goal is to eat a healthy breakfast, stay away from Nutella! I think deep down most of us know that spreading chocolate on our toast can’t be healthy. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped Nutella from focusing their marketing efforts towards convincing us (especially mothers) that their product is nutritious and an important part of a balanced breakfast. To me, positioning a chocolate spread in this way is misleading to consumers.
Let’s take a closer look at what Nutella says about their product and then strip off the claims to uncover the truth.
Evidently, I’m not alone in my frustration. In the UK for example, a large number of people complained about the recent Nutella advertisement, claiming that it contained misleading information about nutritional content. The British Advertising Standards Authority agreed and told Nutella to remove the commercial. Unfortunately, if consumers hadn’t complain, the commercial may still be playing. One would hope that companies like Nutella would have our health interests in mind. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
I thought it would be helpful to compare Nutella to natural peanut butter to show you the difference and also provide a healthy alternative.
If we only looked at the fat content, we would have thought that Nutella is the healthier choice. This is a helpful comparison because it shows us the importance of reading all the components of the label before determining the products true health value. In this case when we look at the whole picture, natural peanut butter looks great naked and is the clear winner. Enjoy your breakfast!
True, but at the end of the day Nutella is still healthier than a lot of food items out there.
Look at Justin’s Maple Almond Butter or Justin’s Classic Almond Butter as another alternative.
Cal: 100
Fat: 9 g
Sodium: 0 mg
Carbs: 3 g
Sugar: 1 g
Protein: 3.5 g
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My daughter is very VERY petite, and i fell for the ‘healthy’ commericials. I thought that the ‘cocoa’ would have benefits and would have protein from the ‘skim milk’…i say she eats 3 tbs a day of this JUNK! I know the first ingredient is sugar, but sugar isnt always evil, if its got good stuff in it too, but the more i read about nutella, the more I think its doenst have any good stuff in it :-/..i go thru about a jar a week, she is a BIRD EATER but loves this stuff. One one hand, that is GOOD for her growth, she is eating in on whole wheat bread, but the commericials are VERY MISLEADING about it being healthy..they tricked me!
I just stumbled across your website and love it! I think it’s awesome you’re exposing deceitfully marketed products like Nutella and Becel, etc.
Nutella and Becel are both constantly being advertised in Canada as ‘healthy’, all the while omitting the fact that the majority of ingredients in both is NOT healthy by a long shot and more than makes up for any (IF any) health benefits of both products.
Keep up the good work!
The nutritional data above are a little off by .5 grams to 1 gram for some of the entries. Besides, the nutrition info on the label for peanut butter and nutella is always based on 2 tbsp., not 1 tbsp. Anyway, I am one of the choosy moms (although I dont use JIF because it has partially hydrogenated oils which means it has trans fats) and I always look at labels. I buy only organic or natural peanut butters. I let my kids have nutella once in a while as a treat. I can’t be that bad. A lot of the cereals out there have more than 13 g of sugar per 3/4 cup. The same is true for yogurt. For a healthy breakfast, my kids normally have boiled eggs and a slice of toast with peanut butter and jelly. However, I dont think kids should be completely deprived of some sugar. A little is okay in my opinion. I know someone who grew up without sugar, without the taste of sweetness and she seems lacking in sensitivity, seldom appreciates jokes and not disposed towards sweet thoughts, feelings or gestures. We always kid her that it is because she was deprived of the “sweets” experience. You cant give what you dont have. Having said that, with the proliferation of cheap alternatives and modifiers in manufacturing, we all have to be more vigilant. Reading “Eat this not that” was an eye opener for me.
Another great blog entry…. my new motto is “if you eat the products that don’t look good naked, then YOU won’t look good naked!”
Thanks again,
Scott
After reading your blog I think Nutella should be sent right to JAIL or at least stay in the penaly box until they clean up their act. Great job of deciphering all that information for me! You are a great writer and I loved this one!