Naughty but nice

The NITC reader who brought as 'Haribo & Special K' for breakfast seems determined to have some sugar to start her day, today asking me about the virtues of the Nutella. To be fair, the actual question was:

"Does Nutella really release energy slowly? (saw advert last night) I know it has nuts in it but it just seems to be such crap (albeit delicious crap)"

Beautifully put!

Well I think she pretty much answered her own question but to be fair to nutella there is some truth in their claim. The high fat content (from palm oil and hazelnuts) slows down the rate of digestion of the sugars content, giving it a low glycemic index of 30. The glycemic index is a measure of the rate of release of sugars from the food into the blood stream, and at 30 Nutella's GI is lower than the GI for jam and honey (around 40-60 depending on the variety). So yes Nutella does release sugar slower than other sugary breakfast spreads.

But in an ideal world we wouldn't be adding any refined sugar to our breakfast, as these sugars have no health benefits at all (other than for intensive sports recovery). And anything that has sugar listed as the first ingredient just isn't going to be good for you:

Ingredients: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor.

To be fair reading between the lines of Nutella's own marketing bumpf makes it clear they don't believe it to be a healthy food:

"When used in moderation with complementary foods, Nutella can form a part of a balanced meal. It is 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 nourish their children with whole grains."

So basically it's a way to bribe children to eat wholegrain bread - Nutella mothers obviously don't come from the same school of parenting as my mum! (No tasty bribes were offered to get us to eat healthy food!)

So if you want to liven up your toast in the morning what's a healthy alternative?

For jam lovers I still favour the St Dalfour brand, sweetened with grape juice rather than sugar, particularly their blueberry jam - delicious.

As for nut spreads, the wonderful Montignac café used to sell hazelnut spread made with just nuts and pure cocoa and it was totally delicious but is sadly no longer available since the café shut down.

There are plenty of no sugar nut butters available (I love Meridian cashew or almond butter) and these could probably be 'nutellad' by warming them and then stiring in some cocoa powder although it's not an experiment I've tried.

I will confess to having melted a couple of squares of dark chocolate with some whole-earth peanut butter - but that didn't make it onto any toast - I ate it straight off the spoon!

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