Most of us have a jar in our cupboards, but is Nutella good for you or not?
We all know Nutella as the heavenly chocolate hazelnut spread that has long been the kryptonite of even the most resolute dieter. There are few among us who have not succumbed to the cravings for this chocolate hazelnut delight, whether on toast, in a pie, or even straight out of the jar with a spoon. The siren’s song of the creamy chocolate and hazelnuts is enhanced by the fact that Nutella is frequently marketed as an important breakfast companion with plenty of health benefits of its own. After all, the Nutella website opens up with a picture of a happy family with the mother serving Nutella on toast to all of her children. This all begs the question, “Is Nutella Healthy?” Our goal here today is to determine whether or not this is the case.
What Does The Manufacturer Say?
The first place we generally get information about the health qualities of any product is also, unfortunately, the one that we should trust the least: the manufacturer. In the case of Nutella, it is manufactured by the European company Ferrero, most famous in the United States for the chocolate hazelnut Rocher candy. Hmmm, I think I see a pattern forming. According to the Nutella website, it is, “a tasty unique spread made from the combination of roasted hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa,” that contains no preservatives, colors, gluten, caffeine, or trans fats. That sounds pretty good so far. It also talks about how Nutella is useful for moms who can’t get their kids to eat whole grains. This is true, as most of us discovered that Nutella is at its peak when it is simply spread across a slice of toast.
The problem is that manufacturers have a tendency to lie misrepresent their products in order to make sales. Put on your detective hats, kids; it’s time to do some good old-fashioned investigating.
What’s In The Jar? A Look At The Nutella Nutrition Label
The first thing that we need to do in order to determine whether Nutella is bad for you or not is to look at the ingredient list and check for the usual suspects: high fructose corn syrup, lots of sugar, hydrogenated oils, and the like. No matter what health benefits are advertised on the front of the package, it’s the back that is always most important. To that end, here is the list of Nutella ingredients for your consideration.
Ingredients: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor.
As we already know, when the first ingredient in a product is sugar in one of its various forms, the product in the package is not going to be good for you. This means that we can already answer, “Is Nutella good for you?” with a solid, “No,” but lets keep going anyway and see where the Nutella trail leads us. The second ingredient in the list is palm oil, a saturated fat popular with process food manufacturers because it extends the shelf life of the product and helps keep it moist. Unfortunately, consumption of palm oil has been linked to increases in LDL cholesterol levels, which is the bad form of cholesterol. Many forms of palm oil are also partially hydrogenated, a process which produces trans fats, though Ferrero insists that there are no trans fats in Nutella.
How Healthy Is Nutella Compared to Chocolate Frosting and Peanut Butter?
Is Nutella more like frosting, peanut butter, or better than both?
Since the most common “healthy” Nutella application is to simply spread it over whole grain toast, let’s take a look at how Nutella stacks up against another popular toast spread: peanut butter. And just for fun, let’s throw in some chocolate frosting just to see what happens. What kid hasn’t wanted to spread chocolate frosting over his morning toast?
The Nutella nutritional information, as well as the information for the other products, comes from the manufacturers’ respective websites.
| Nutella | Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate Frosting | Skippy Natural Peanut Butter | |
| Serving Size | 2 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp | 2 Tbsp |
| Calories | 200 | 140 | 190 |
| Fat | 11g | 6g | 16g |
| Sat. Fat | 3.5g | 1.5g | 3.5g |
| Trans Fat | 0g | 1.5g | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0mg | 0mg |
| Sodium | 15mg | 90mg | 150g |
| Carbs | 22g | 22g | 6g |
| Fiber | 1g | 0g | 2g |
| Sugar | 21g | 20g | 3g |
| Protein | 3g | 0g | 7g |
| Vitamin A | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Calcium | 4% | 0% | 0% |
| Iron | 4% | 2% | 4% |
Each product has downsides that need to be taken into account. The Nutella has plenty of fat and sugar, but not much else. Given the fact that palm oil is the number two ingredient, we know that most of that fat is the unhealthy sort from the palm oil rather than the healthier hazelnut fats. The chocolate frosting contains trans fats, which means that it is automatically disqualified because of how horrible trans fats are for our health. Finally, the peanut butter contains a good bit of fat, albeit natural fat, and sodium, but it also has more fiber than the other products and little in the way of sugar. All things considered, the nutritional information points toward peanut butter as being the healthiest option out of the three.
Is Nutella Healthy For You? A Summation
Despite how the marketing attempts to show Nutella as a healthy breakfast companion that moms can feel confident serving to their kids, or how many hazelnuts supposedly come in eat jar, there are some glaring faults with Nutella that we simply can’t overlook. Nutella contains more sugar and palm oil than it does hazelnuts, making it more akin to a jar or frosting or a candy bar than the healthier alternatives out there such as peanut or almond butter, which contain healthy fats and little to no added sugar.
In fact, one California mother sued Ferrero in 2011 for false advertising because she believed that Nutella was, in fact, a health food, until her friends pointed out the nutrition label and explained to her just how unhealthy it was. This just emphasizes the need for us all to read nutrition labels and determine for ourselves how healthy a product is before we buy it instead of blindly following manufacturers’ health claims.
Just like the Cookie Monster and his beloved cookies, we need to look at Nutella as being a “sometimes food” and accept that while it is very tasty, it is not good for us and should be eaten sparingly if our goal is good nutrition. Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because the commercials say that it is, “part of a balanced breakfast,” that makes it good for you. If you are feeling industrious, however, you could make your own homemade Nutella alternative and ensure that it is as healthy as possible. To sum up: is Nutella tasty? Yes. Is Nutella good for you? No.
Question of the day: is knowing that Nutella is unhealthy going to stop you from eating it, have you made your own, or are you going to continue eating it and just exercise to make up the difference? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Reading the labels did stop me from buying it again – though it’s tasty and I will give my college kids a jar every so often as a treat, I decided that personally it wasn’t for me. I did buy a brand of hazelnut spread that is more natural – not as tasty, but I am okay with the tradeoff. Our tastebuds can be so deceitful sometimes wanting something even though it’s not the best for us.
I’m actually experimenting with a homemade Nutella recipe that doesn’t have any (or much) added sugar or unhealthy fat. Once I’m happy with it, I’ll post the recipe.
Yea, I totally had to swear off of Nutella about 5 years ago (I loved it on crepes most of all with berries, now I just have crepes with berries
). Sure tasted great though!!!
Miriam@Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters
Tim, even though I’m not a fan of Nutella (in fact, I’ve never even tasted it), I wanted to read your post about it. Fabulous! I am not averse to a bit of sugar once in a while, but it has to be in an otherwise wholesome and utterly delicious homemade treat. No trans fats, hydrogenated fats, high fructose corn syrup, regular corn syrup. And I only eat peanut butter that must be stirred. Even if the label says “Natural,” if it doesn’t need to be stirred there’s something bad in it! Loved your thorough coverage of the topic!
Thank you very much.
I agree that it’s unrealistic to think that we can go completely without sugar, and that the sugar we do eat has to count. I haven’t quite worked out a homemade Nutella that I’m happy with yet, but I’m getting close.
Thanks for reading!
I don’t think Nutella is a dessert in disguise– it’s not wearing a disguise at all! That people fall for the marketing is very pathetic.
That said, it IS delicious!
I tried to convince my friends in France that natural peanut butter has health benefits, but they didn’t believe me. Perhaps I’ll show them your post!
Thank you very much for reading and sharing. I’m glad you liked it.
Our jar has gone in the bin this morning!!! My step daughter will not be happy, but i don’t want my new baby who i will be starting to wean soon getting used to sugary things especially for breakfast!!!
It’s certainly fair to analyze the contents of Nutella from an objective standpoint; but on what basis do you make value judgments, claiming the product is “unhealthy” or “not good for you?”
Clearly salubrity is relative to an individual’s diet: somebody with extraordinarily low LDL cholesterol can do with a dose or two of Nutella. Shall we deter them from it? No, you claim yourself it’s suitable as a “sometimes food”; but how can something worthy of occasional consumption be considered “unhealthy” or “not good for you?”
Moreover you make sly insinuations that Nutella has made misrepresentations on their website. Their website states:
“When used in moderation with complementary foods, Nutella® can form a part of a balanced breakfast. It can be a quick and easy way to encourage kids to eat whole grains, such as whole wheat toast, English muffins, toaster waffles and bagels. With the unique taste of Nutella®, kids may think they are eating a treat for breakfast while moms are helping to nourish their children with whole grains!”
Notice that part about “when used in moderation” that you managed to leave out of this blog post? The very same conclusion you reached about Nutella as a “sometimes food” to be consumed in moderation is on the manufacturer’s web site!
So is the ingredients list you cite; they hardly even expect you to go searching for a jar to find out what’s in it.
In essence, you are trashing Nutella for being what every reasonable person knows it is: sugar, hazelnuts, and saturated fat. While pretending that the manufacturer has somehow represented it otherwise, which is clearly not the case. I think you are misleading your readers and ought to either correct your article or apologize, or both.
And as to the product: a sweet, hazelnut-flavored spread is not “dessert in disguise” any more than strawberry jam is; your comparisons to peanut butter are silly, as if the two have anything at all in common, flavor-wise. Common sense tells us that different people have different tastes, and the suggestion of spreading Nutella on toast — “in moderation,” remember — is wise enough*. After all, French children — hardly models of exploding obesity — have been eating it for generations.
* I can hardly resist further noting the silliness of the peanut butter comparison: do you not understand that it is, in fact, typically paired with jam and not eaten alone, for the sake of taste? Or is that also “unhealthy” or “not good for you?”
Just a few quick points:
1.) This post is intended to make the argument that Nutella is unhealthy. The goal of every persuasive article is to show the reader why you came to the conclusion that you did. If I didn’t make that judgment, why even write the post?
2.) People with extremely low LDL cholesterol are not the norm. In my experience, people who try to find out whether a product like Nutella is healthy or not are concerned about their nutrition, whether due to obesity, medical reasons, etc, and are not the “every reasonable person” who already knows whether is is healthy or not, otherwise they would not be doing the research in the first place.
3.) I don’t like the “balanced breakfast” and “in moderation” arguments because they’re marketing speak for saying that it’s good for you to eat dessert for breakfast. It’s the same marketing that is used with sugary cereals. No one’s going to tell you that you can’t eat dessert for breakfast, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
4.) I chose peanut butter because even though they taste different, they’re similar products that most people can relate to. I included the frosting to be silly.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, but I stand by what I wrote.
well, being that i jst got my results for my cholesterol check up and it went up sky high im definetaly going to stop eating it for good even though i do exercise x2 wk..
Thanks for the post i didn’t realise how bad it was. Will be passing it onto my neighbour. This shouldn’t be advertised as healthy and it awfully bad.
Hi,
Thanks for this article. I absolutely love nutella, and of course heard all of the advertising saying that it is a healthy hazelnut spread, and part of a balanced breakfast. Now, all it took was for me to turn the jar around and read the ingredients….the first ingredient being sugar immediately said to me that no, this is not a healthy spread, and should be seen as more of a dessert or baking aid. So we have it very sparingly, as often as we’d have jelly beans or something like that, which is not often.
I actually really liked your comparison to frosting, because no one trying to eat a balanced, healthy diet would ever spread frosting on their toast, and yet not necessarily hesitate with nutella. Very interesting that nutella actually has more calories and fat than the frosting does.
Thank you for this article! I’m sure it is well informing many people to make good choices, research, and most importantly, read the back of the jar.