Are you confused whether Nutella is a worthy alternative to peanut butter? Let me start by saying that just because Nutella has the word nut within it does not make it within the same health league as peanut butter.
The first part of ingredients and ingredients lists you need to understand is that companies need to label the ingredients in descending order in amounts present in the food. The statement made by Nutella that this spread contains hazelnuts, cocoa powder, skim milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, soy lecithin and vanillin is true. However, these ingredients are not in the order that they are present within the spread.
In descending order these are the ingredients present in Nutella:
Sugar, vegetable oil, hazelnuts (13%), cocoa powder (7.4%), non-fat milk solids, emulsifier (soy lecithin), flavour (vanillin).
The amount of added sugar present in Nutella is a whopping 54.4% of the entire product. So, if you are wanting to swap Nutella for melted chocolate on toast this would be a close match in nutritional value. The total fat sits at 30% and the amount of saturated fat is above the recommended 3g/100g serving. Also, only 7.3g of protein per 100g which is not great. On top of this Nutella provides extraordinarily little vitamins, minerals, or fibre.
So, is Nutella a comparable swap? Absolutely not. Peanut butter provides your body with enough quality protein with 85-100% of peanut butter varieties made from peanuts. In comparison to Nutella’s 7.3g of protein per 100g peanut butter provides around 24-26g. 26g total fat and just over the recommended 3g/100g saturated fat at 5g saturated fat per 100g. This fat comes naturally from the peanut. As a result, the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating sees this spread as a quality alternative meat source at a 30g serving.
On top of this peanut butter spread provides your body with magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, folate, Niacin, B6, Zinc, fibre, calcium, phytochemicals, thiamine, vitamin E, copper, iron, and resveratrol.
Take home message: Nutella is not even in the same league as peanut butter. Save your health while still satisfying your taste buds by choosing quality 100% peanut butter.
