February

17, 2013

The low-down on Nutella

Nutella is cleverly marketed as a healthy topping for bread and toast, but Catherine Saxelby begs to differ. She explains why.

The makers of Nutella like to promote the fact that their product contains hazelnuts, cocoa powder and skim milk powder. Those things are fairly wholesome, right?

Yes, these are ingredients in Nutella but while youre certainly encouraged to believe that the product is composed mainly of hazelnuts and cocoa (two healthy-sounding ingredients) if you look at the actual ingredients listed as they are on the label when forced by law, you can see what the product is really made from.

On the label, the manufacturer MUST show the ingredients in descending order by weight from the largest down to the smallest.

So, looking at the label, I now know that the rst (read main) ingredient is sugar (not hazelnuts), followed by vegetable oil (not cocoa), then hazelnuts, then cocoa solids, followed by non-fat milk solids, soy lecithin and vanilla avour.

From this, its clear that Nutella is more sugar and fat than hazelnuts its true content of hazelnuts is low, at only 13 percent. Dont be fooled by the advertising.

Sugar Sugar is the rst ingredient and thus the main by weight of all the Nutella ingredients. In fact Nutella is 55 percent sugar! That puts Nutella on a par with chocolate.

Vegetable oil The vegetable oil is palm oil, a semi-solid fat thats needed to give Nutella its spreadable texture. The manufacturer says they were using a hydrogenated oil until 2006 but switched to palm oil to cut back on the trans fat. Palm oil is free of trans fat but is still high in saturated fat so its not good for you. Its a no-win oil choice that many manufacturers face.

Cocoa Cocoa solids (or powder) gives Nutella its chocolatey taste.

Emulsier Soy lecithin a common emulsier that keeps the sugar, oil, nuts and cocoa nicely blended and stops them separating out during the months on the shelves. Nothing sinister about it.

Flavour (vanillin) This is not vanilla or vanilla extract such as you use at home. Vanillin, which is a synthetic form identical to the natural vanillin, but much less expensive, is the largest avour component of the vanilla bean but much less interesting.

Whats not in it? At least theres no articial colours or preservatives, no corn syrup and no added salt.

Nutella nutrition facts

To ll in the rest of the detail, heres the Nutella nutrition information that you can nd on the label:

Per 100g: Energy 2175kJ Protein 7.3g Fat, total 30.3g Fat, saturated 10.0g Carbohydrate, total 54.7g Sugars 54.4g Sodium 33 mg

The serving size is 20g which is one tablespoon what youd spread thinly on two slices of bread.

Spreadable chocolate, anyone?

Think of Nutella as chocolate in spreadable form. With 30 percent fat and almost 55 percent sugar, Nutella is very close to chocolate in its composition. In fact, Nutella is more akin to milk chocolate with hazelnuts for fat, sugar and kilojoules theyre so close. See my comparison of the two weight for weight: Nutella side by side with Cadbury Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts.
Energy Fat, Total Fat, Saturated Carb,Total Sugars % Hazelnuts

Nutella 2175kj 30.3g 10.0g 54.7g 54.7g 13%

Hazelnut Chocolate 2320Kj 37.0g 14.6g 45.5g 44.4g 23%

Did you notice that the chocolate block has 19 percent LESS sugar than Nutella, and 23 percent hazelnuts compared to Nutella at only 13 percent? Less sugar, more nuts!

So is Nutella healthy?
Nutella provides very little in the way of good nutrition. Not much protein, bre, vitamins, minerals the nutrients we are lacking. We dont need more sugar and fat.

But are there any good points? Yes. Nutella is low in sodium, as are many sweet foods. And its a concentrated food that can increase kids kilojoule intake easily if theyre the chronically-underweight type and already eat a well-balanced diet.

The four most-asked questions about Nutella:

Q. Is Nutella healthier than peanut butter? No. Nutella might be sold in the peanut butter aisle, but it isnt a nutritional swap. Peanut butter has more protein, little sugar, healthy fat and vitamins. Its a decent protein for vegetarians. Most are 85 percent peanuts (with some oil and sugar) but you can buy 100 percent peanut types.

Q. Is Nutella healthier than jam? Not really. Nutella has 54 percent sugar, while jam and honey have around 60 to 70 percent. But Nutella slaps on 30 percent fat, while jam and honey have none. The nearest equivalent to Nutella on toast is peanut butter topped with honey on toast. Then its the same for sugar and fat.

Q. Is the suggested kids breakfast of fruit, Nutella on two slices of toast and low-fat milk a decent breakfast for kids?

Nope and you know its not the healthiest breakfast to send your kids off the school with. It never has been and never will be. Its just Nutella on toast enhanced to look better by the fruit and milk and white high-bre bread.

Best bet: If you are going to give the kids the occasional piece of toast with Nutella, dont use butter or margarine and spread it on wholegrain bread rather than low-bre white bread.

Q. Is Nutella really low GI? Yes. But so are things like sausages, corn chips and chocolate cake usually thanks to their fat content which slows down the rate of digestion and absorption in your system. However, just because something has a low GI doesnt necessarily make it a healthy choice. Would you give your kids corn chips and chocolate cake for breakfast?

Simply slapping on a low GI claim doesnt make something healthier overall. If you believed the ads, youd think that chocolatey-hazelnut spread was the health food of a nation and the perfect breakfast toast topper. It isn't!

The bottom line

Why try to make out something is healthy when its not? Just accept Nutella for the chocolatey treat it is! Have it on toast, croissant or crepes. Its a good case of clever marketing that highlights the few positives and says nothing about the bad things.