There's a new commercial I keep seeing for Nutella that is really pissing me off (View it at Nutella's website here). Now, I have to admit, I love me some Nutella. I might not eat it very often, but it's seriously good stuff. But my affection for the product does not mitigate my disgust with the company's marketing practices.
The commercial, for those of you who can't be bothered to click the link, features a mom talking about all of the reasons why she likes to give her kids Nutella. She says Nutella is "a delicious hazelnut spread I use to get my kids to eat healthy foods. I spread a little on all kinds of healthy things, like multigrain toast. Every jar has wholesome, quality ingredients like hazelnuts, skim milk, and a hint of delicious cocoa. And Nutella has no artificial colors or preservatives." Sounds pretty good, right? Let's look at each of these claims separately shall we?
1. Nutella can get kids to eat healthy foods. Notice, she doesn't say that Nutella IS a healthy food. That's your first clue. If the best thing that can be said about the product is that it helps kids eat OTHER foods that are healthy, chances are the product itself is not.
2. It contains wholesome ingredients. What the hell does that even mean??? Does anyone know? Let me give you a tip: "wholesome" is the word food manufacturers use to describe foods that have no nutritional benefits worth mentioning. The dictionary definition of wholesome is "promoting health," but the professor of my food science class defined it differently. He said "wholesome" refers to foods that contain everything you would expect them to contain and nothing else. In other words, they have not been contaminated by substances you wouldn't want in your food (like chemicals, insects, etc.) "Wholesome" CAN refer to healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, but it can just as easily be used to describe butter, bacon, and french fries. When you hear this word, just ignore it.
3. Nutella contains hazelnuts, skim milk, and a "touch" of cocoa. Maybe so. They're probably not making this up, but let's look at what else is in it. According to the label, the first ingredient is not hazelnuts, skim milk, or cocoa. It's sugar; 21 grams of it per serving to be exact. Why don't they mention that in the commercial? Oh and there's also some modified palm oil, a saturated fat (i.e. artery-clogging fat). And the skim milk? It's down at the bottom of the list. You can't tell how much skim milk you'd actually get in one serving, but judging by the 4% daily value of calcium each serving contains, you can bet it's not much. An 8 ounce glass of skim milk provides 30% of the daily value for calcium, so if you do the math, that's about 2 tablespoons, or .13 servings of dairy.
4. Nutella has no artificial colors or preservatives. My short answer to this is: so what?! There is no convincing evidence that either of these things has any negative effect on health. But there is plenty of evidence that sugar, saturated fat, and excess calories contribute to all kinds of health problems.
This kind of advertising (and I've seen it done many many times before) makes me think that we really need more regulation of food advertising. If a product has an overall poor nutritional profile and is likely to promote disease rather than health, a company should not be allowed to suggest that it is nutritious. It is deceptive and unethical. These companies are exploiting the public's lack of nutrition knowledge and profiting while their customers suffer the consequences.
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