So which is healthier?
Now that I’ve burdened you with the bad news about peanut butter prices on the rise, I’ll let you in on another bit of interesting, yet hardly shocking, information: despite their healthy advertising campaigns, Nutella just isn’t that good for you.
If your kids are anything like my son Ben, Nutella is a favourite spread on bread, and often a requested breakfast food. Ads reassure kids and moms that Nutella is a healthy choice for them because it’s made with skim milk, chocolate and hazelnuts. While I never considered it the best choice for morning meals, I didn’t think it would be worse than serving up chocolate frosting for breakfast.
My good friend Julie recently wrote about the nutritional comparisons of both Nutella and No-Name Chocolate Frosting. I was shocked to learn that Nutella has 25% more sugar than the frosting. It also has more calories, fat and saturated fat than the brand it was compared to. I would never dream of slathering a thick slice of bread with a smear of frosting, but as it turns out, that may in fact be the healthier option.
The first two ingredients listed on the Nutella label are sugar and palm oil. That means there is more sugar than skim milk, chocolate or hazelnuts. More palm oil, too. In case you didn’t know, palm oil is a saturated fat known for its use in processed products.
What about those hazelnuts, they must be good for something? According to the Nutella website, 56 hazelnuts can be found in every 400g jar, making each serving worth 1g each of fibre and protein. The same can be found in two tablespoons of frosting. And the skim milk that makes it so nutritious? It only makes up 2% of the daily-recommended value.
At SavvyMom we don’t like to bash brands or products because we believe that if you don’t have anything good to say, you shouldn’t bother saying anything. Sometimes we feel the responsibility to share news we consider good to know, however. This is that kind of news.
I did a bit of digging and found a well-known recipe for homemade chocolate and hazelnut spread. The recipe ingredients are exactly what you might hope them to be—almonds, hazelnuts, milk, honey, and chocolate. I think I’ll be making a batch of this over the weekend.
Do your kids eat Nutella? If so, did you think you were serving them a healthy option?
Comments
I recently found an almond dark chocolate spread in the health food section of my local grocery store. It was far healthier than Nutella but would still be considered a treat in our house.
There are “healthier” versions of Nuttela, we can not eat them as we have hazelnut allergies in our home, but our health food store sells them, and they have “better” sugar options in them and none of the dreaded palm oil in them, nor the preservatives etc that Nutella is full of - might be something to wean your kiddo onto :) no judgment just a thought.
Those commercials have always driven me CRAZY! If you’ve ever tasted it, Nutella (and any other store bought hazelnut chocolate spread) is clearly mostly sugar. And I am a label reader when it comes to food I buy for my kids. Having said that, occasionally when I am hungry while grocery shopping, and craving chocolate, and having a rough week, I buy a small jar for me, and hide it behind the flour in the pantry. But I never give it to the kids! lol ;-)
My kids are competitive swimmers and all they want to eat before and after any swim is a Nutella roll up. I never really considered it a healty option but a quick replacement of calories lost during their workouts. However after reading this perhaps 10 nutalla rolls up a week in doing more harm than good. I will be checking the local health food store for some healthier options for sure . I may even give that recipe a try. THANKS!
Oops! I felt the same -that it wasn’t perfect but not bad. Thanks for this article! I’ll be making my own from now on!
My kids love Nutella but I have stopped buying it because it would always be their first breakfast choice in place of healthier options such as oatmeal or whole wheat toast and peanut butter. I never really thought it was healthy regardless of the commercials say . I would probably buy it again in the future but only as a special treat!
Here is an interesting alternative i stumbled across and have been thinking of making:
http://www.myfriendinfood.com/2011/06/20/high-protein-chocolate-spread/
Yuck! I would never buy Nutella. Why would anyone consider a chocolate spread good for you? Eat some whole nuts and fruit.
I agree, I never thought it was the greatest but felt it was better than the alternative - no breakfast. but I shall be looking at the homemade spread now.
our son has a peanut allergy, so we have no choice but to choose something other than peanut butter. based on the taste of nutella, i knew that there was a lot of sugar without even having to look at the list of ingredients. but i had no idea that it was MORE than chocolate frosting! we will definitely be looking into something else, but this will be very disappointing for the kids. as for the alternative nutella recipe…great! but i don’t have the time to make stuff like that. guess we’ll just have to look for other solutions.
I have to admit I love Nutella (tastes SO good on bread) but like your other reader, I have to hide it! BUT, i think I will try the healthier recipe and see how it goes.
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