Nutella is often marketed as a simple and tasty breakfast for children. Although companies claim their Nutella products contain healthy and quality ingredients, such as skim milk and hazelnuts, it has higher fat and sugar quantities. Undoubtedly, Nutella is tasty and delicious food for babies, but it does not offer a lot of nutritional value.
Nutella is made by an Italian-based company Ferrero, the third-largest chocolate producer worldwide. Many parents give Nutella to their babies and toddlers as a topping for waffles and pancakes. However, if you ask whether Nutella is safe for babies, our answer is Yes and No. Nutella safety depends on producer company, the type of ingredients, and your child’s health status. Read on!
Nutella Ingredients
Sugar is one of the largest ingredients in Nutella. Most companies use beet or refined sugar in their products. It contains palm oil that comes from plant-based sources, giving Nutella a creamy texture.
Hazelnuts is another ingredient used in the making of Nutella. Each jar contains around 50% of these sweet nuts. Besides, Nutella contains cocoa, skimmed milk powder, vanillin, and soy lecithin.
| One tablespoon (18.5 grams) of Nutella 200 calories | |
| Sugar | 10.5 grams |
| Fat | 6.0 grams |
| Proteins | 1.0 grams |
| Iron | 2% of Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) |
| Calcium | 2% of the RDI |
Is Nutella Healthy?
Nutella is delicious and tasty food for your toddler and contains a small amount of iron and calcium. However, these don’t provide enough nutritional value to your child because of the higher amounts of calories, fat, and sugar fades calcium and iron.
Giving your baby 1-2 daily servings cause weight gain over time. Nutella is calorie-dense food due to its high-fat content. It is loaded with palm oil besides sugar. Although your child needs a certain amount of fat to maintain cellular metabolism, consuming too much fat can cause weight gain, which eventually leads to health conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer.
Moreover, sugar is the main ingredient of Nutella, which gives it a sweet taste. As mention above, one tablespoon or 18.5 grams of Nutella contains 10.5 grams of sugar, it can harm your baby’s health. It has more sugar than cookies and chocolate, meaning you should limit foods high in sugar for your baby to ensure his optimal health (also read Healthy diet for baby).
According to the American Heart Association, children must not consume more than 25 grams or six tablespoons of sugar daily. Another study highlights that mother should give no more than two tablespoons of Nutella to their babies daily.
High sugar consumption is associated with many health conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, declined cognition, poor mental health, liver disease, and esophageal cancer. Childhood obesity can cause various problems for your kid later in life. That’s why we recommend you to limit the amount of Nutella for your baby or don’t give it until your child is 3-4 years old.
Final Words
You baby’s optimal health is essential for his overall physical and mental wellbeing. More research is needed to validate further the harmful effects on Nutella on a child’s health. Lastly, current research shows that the high fat, sugar, and caloric amount can cause health issues over time.
