This (long overdue) post is in response to my good buddy Luke's concerns about one of my favourite food products here.
Now, I haven't seen the ad in question, but the fact is that when one claims that Nutella is "FREAKING CHOCOLATE," that is inaccurate. Nutella is a HAZELNUT spread that contains cocoa as one of the ingredients. In fact, cocoa is fourth on the list of ingredients. The jar that I'm looking at says it contains 106 roasted hazelnuts, 1 3/4 cups of skim milk...and "a hint of delicious cocoa."
Mmm...
According to Wikipedia (which granted may not be a perfect source), Nutella isn't chocolate but an Italian confection called gianduja made by blending chocolate and hazelnut paste. And apparently cocoa makes up only 7.4 % of the mixture. Hard pressed to call it "chocolate."
Ok, now I'm having a wee bit of fun with Luke here in my "defense" of Nutella, but I would imagine that my prime concern with giving Nutella to a child EVERYDAY wouldn't be that it has cocoa (or chocolate) in it, but rather that the most abundant ingredient in Nutella is...sugar. But so are many peanut butters and cereals in the same camp.
But then again, I eat Nutella nearly everyday and I can attest to my own good health and slim size, so maybe the ad isn't lying...
6 comments:
You know I do enjoy a good piece of toast with Nutella on it.
you caught me going over the top a bit. Yes I reffered to it as chocolate too many times, when it is infact more hazlnut than chocolate, but I did mention the hazelnuts.
Nutella is comparable to peanut butter(i'm sure peanut butter has had it's overly healthy ads too), but it's recent affiliaton with soccer and this overly positive ad, got to me. Nutella is good for an indulgence every now and then, but lets not kid ourselves, it is far from a healthy choice. I am astounded at the power of advertsing when they can push a chocolate product as a heathly souce of nutrition.
I'm glad your posting again. Although I find it funny that my anti- Nutella rant brought you back. I wonder what would have happened if I went with my anti canadian blood service rant.
Well, I can attest to my own good health and I eat Nutella very regularly...and I don't watch much TV, so I hadn't even seen that ad. I'm not being influenced by "the power of advertising," but rather the power of my tastebuds for liking tasty food.
In the end, I'd be willing to bet that a slice of quality, homemade whole wheat bread with Nutella actually contains MORE nutrients, vitamins and good stuff for a person than a bowl of Cheerios with it's refined flours and excess carbs, EVEN granting the excess sugar in the Nutella. Though, I'll admit, I'm not nutritionist.
I think you should give Nutella another chance Luke. We'll do a Nutella challenge when I get home. ;)
BTW, I'm not being that serious...
what's interesting to me is that you (luke) have referred to a "recent" affiliation with soccer. this affiliation is by no means recent. nutella has been marketed as an energy health food snack in asia for a good twenty years. mmmm nutella...
I confess..I met nutella way back in grade 7 on a trip to Norway, and over indulged. Still don't think it's a healthy snack
I used to sleep over at my best friend's house in grade 7 because we would sit there and eat nutella with our spoons... oh the memories!
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