The British Get It

by tristero

Earlier today, I made what I thought were utterly uncontroversial statements: (1) It’s a rotten idea to serve your kids Nutella on toast for breakfast every day and (2) Nutella’s commercial urging parents to do so because they can scam their kids into eating “multi-grain toast” is misleading and despicable.

And as usual, some commenters leapt to defend Big Food. We learned from them that sugar and fat are good for you. But that’s not the problem. The problem is, obviously grossly excessive sugar and fat consumption that is the problem with a daily dose of Nutella on toast for breakfast followed, again quite obviously, any reasonable diet you care to imagine.

Bottom line: you care about your kids? Don’t feed them Nutella and toast every day for breakfast. Are you rushed for time and Nutella and toast is the only thing you have time to prepare? Well, ok, but don’t pretend you’re giving them something “healthier” than pop tarts because you’re not. Merely because you can prepare a potentially less-nutritious breakfast choice than Nutella and toast does not make Nutella and toast “better.” It just means you’re kidding yourself. It also means you’re still not feeding your kid a decent breakfast. If you do it every day… well, that’s my point. Again: if you care about your kids, don’t feed them Nutella and toast every day for breakfast.

Please don’t blame me for pointing out, again, something that is patently obvious. If, as one commenter says, you have only 90 seconds to prepare breakfast, that doesn’t mean Nutella on toast is a responsible solution to your time problem. You still haven’t fed your kids a decent breakfast even if you replaced the [insert here the least nutritious breakfast you can think of here] when you did so. It is not “better.”

Which brings us to the Nutella advertising campaign. Turns out I’m not alone in feeling they are being cynically misleading in associating Nutella with healthy eating. Britain banned a Nutella ad, and they were right. There were three complaints made. Two were dismissed but the third one stuck.

[The Advertising Standards Association] said the ad implied Nutella made a “more significant nutritional contribution to a balanced breakfast than was the case”.

The ASA added that in the context of claims for the nutritional benefits of a balanced breakfast Nutella had only mentioned hazelnuts, skimmed milk and cocoa powder.

This created “the overall impression that Nutella made a significant contribution to a balanced breakfast”.

The ASA said that only small quantities of sugar and fat were recommended as part of a balanced diet and the ad was misleading, and therefore should not be shown again, because Nutella had a high sugar and fat content.