Sugar with Added Hazelnuts

Would You Like Some Hazelnuts With That Sugar?

I love nutella. It’s a guilty pleasure. Why guilty? If you’ve never bothered to read the ingredient list, the first ingredient is not hazelnuts, it’s not cocoa, it’s sugar. In fact, every 1 tbsp serving has 11 g of sugar. (The American version has 2 tbsp serving with 21 g sugar, the one sold in Canada is 1 tbsp serving with 11 g sugar).

To put that number into context, the American Heart Association recommends that you should limit your added sugars to 25 grams per day for women and  36 grams per day for men). If you started your day with 1 tbsp of nutella, then half of your daily ‘added sugar’ allowance is used up.

The Hershey brand is in the same ballpark at  2 tbsp serving containing 20 g of sugar.

There is one brand that I have found that is better. It’s called Justin’s it’s label says 2 tbsp serving has 8 g of sugar It also tastes really great. Bad news for Canadians though, it’s not available here. If you are in the U.S. and can get it, be prepared to pay more to get less sugar – but pay about $10 more.

I have an alternative that is pretty easy to assemble and doesn’t have any added fat. Check out my blog post called Jean’s Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.