# Nutella - most deceptive product on the shelf? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285 "2013-02-24T21:19:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/121 "2013-02-25T18:17:03Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I find it interesting that half the people in the thread who are flabbergasted that anyone would be surprised that Nutella isn’t healthy are also those who _haven’t_ seen ads for it. Isn’t that kind of the point? Those of us who \*have \*seen the ads either thought of it as healthy, or think they want us to think of it as healthy. Those of you are aren’t seeing the ads aren’t deceived. Duh. My wife and I saw the ad, and then she laughed and said to me, “Doesn’t everybody know that Nutella is a dessert? Who in their right mind would use it for breakfast?” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/122 "2013-02-25T18:36:59Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > It’s shown as a breakfast food So? Since when does “breakfast food” mean “healthy”? Donuts, Lucky Charms and cheese danish are all breakfast foods. I wouldn’t consider any of them healthy. > [@NitroPress](#): > > I see we have the usual number of folks with relatively few summers under their hat defending something they see as normal. The world didn’t used to be 90% shit, kids, and accepting it as normal doesn’t make it right. Yep. That’s why my grandmother used to save a can of bacon grease and use it for cooking all the time. Please. I’ve seen the ads too. I’ve never thought it was supposed to be “health food”. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/123 "2013-02-25T18:43:18Z")
Well, the commercial mentions using it on wholegrain toast or a multi-grain waffle. So they are certainly _associating_ the product with relatively healthy foods. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/124 "2013-02-25T18:47:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Which are those? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one. Sorry, I was complaining about packages that contain 2.5 servings or 3.5 or whatever. :dubious: Seriously? I understand it in large packaging, especially in items that are normally sold in pound/gallon/whatever sizes, but I’m pretty sure we can make chip bags in damned near any size. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/125 "2013-02-25T18:47:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You disagree. Okay, we disagree. We can pick up the details anon. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/126 "2013-02-25T18:56:33Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > My wife and I saw the ad, and then she laughed and said to me, “Doesn’t everybody know that Nutella is a dessert? Who in their right mind would use it for breakfast?” I know some people will be shocked, but (you might want to sit down for this) - I’m in my early 40s and have managed to get this far in life without **ever eating Nutella**. Really. I also have no kids, and when you add that I’ve never seen the need to have a nut butter other than good old reliable peanut butter (tahini does not count, and I use that for hummus), it’s quite possible that the occasional person might not realize that this is fancy frosting. I’ve seen the “gosh, put this on bread for your kiddos” happy-shiny commercials and assumed they were marketing it hard to the peanut-allergic and the “hint of cocoa” flavor was to make this weird nut butter palatable to generations of picky eater kids. If I bought it for **myself** (but I wouldn’t because ugh, I don’t even want a “hint of cocoa” in my nut butter), however, I would read the damned label. (And moms probably should too, but then again, we have advertising rules here for a reason, so whatever.) ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/127 "2013-02-25T18:57:44Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Food sellers can say almost anything, present their product in any imaginable way, with reality constricted to a few square inches of dense type. Wow, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. None of the above is remotely true. There are roughly 1500 _sections_ that make up FDA labeling regulations. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/128 "2013-02-25T19:02:28Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I know some people will be shocked, but (you might want to sit down for this) - I’m in my early 40s and have managed to get this far in life without **ever eating Nutella**. Really. I also have no kids, and when you add that I’ve never seen the need to have a nut butter other than good old reliable peanut butter (tahini does not count, and I use that for hummus), it’s quite possible that the occasional person might not realize that this is fancy frosting. I’ve seen the “gosh, put this on bread for your kiddos” happy-shiny commercials and assumed they were marketing it hard to the peanut-allergic and the “hint of cocoa” flavor was to make this weird nut butter palatable to generations of picky eater kids. If I bought it for **myself** (but I wouldn’t because ugh, I don’t even want a “hint of cocoa” in my nut butter), however, I would read the damned label. (And moms probably should too, but then again, we have advertising rules here for a reason, so whatever.) Even so, it’s not appreciably worse nutrition wise than peanut butter or jelly. The former is super high in fat and the latter is super high in sugar. Nutella is in the middle on both. All are very high calorie foods. If you’ve complaining about how nutritiously devoid Nutella is, you have to compare it to something other than PB&J or poptarts. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/129 "2013-02-25T19:02:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes, that is me who said that. I’m unsure of what point you’re trying to make here. His point is that he finds it funny you have no issues with just taking a quarter of the pint of ice cream but eat an entire bag of chips if left unchecked. (I assume the difference is that the ice cream gets scooped in a bowl and then put away so it’s out of sight and mind but the bag of chips tends to just get opened and left on the table so it’s easy to just keep snacking away?) Using advertising to determine how, when or the quantities of a product to use is far more alien to me than the idea that nutella is healthful/unhealthful. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/130 "2013-02-25T19:06:06Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Even so, it’s not appreciably worse nutrition wise than peanut butter or jelly. The former is super high in fat and the latter is super high in sugar. Nutella is in the middle on both. All are very high calorie foods. If you’ve complaining about how nutritiously devoid Nutella is, you have to compare it to something other than PB&J or poptarts. It also happens to be low in protein compared to peanut butter, which is what it’s usually used in place of, so it happens to be not only high calorie but much lower in a beneficial nutrient than what it would replace. So yes, I would argue that it **is** nutritionally worse than the usual alternative. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/131 "2013-02-25T19:06:56Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Well, the commercial mentions using it on wholegrain toast or a multi-grain waffle. So they are certainly _associating_ the product with relatively healthy foods. Sure. And granola bars are associated with an active, healthy lifestyle, and when I drink beer, apparently gorgeous people will start hanging around with me, etc. I mean, yeah, that’s what advertising is. It wants you to associate their product with a good feeling. (And, if I could nitpick a bit, the commercial mentions using it on “multigrain bread,” which, while associated with health for some reason, just means bread made from more than one type of grain. It says nothing about fiber content and can be just as “bad” for you as regular wheat bread. Now, they do say “whole wheat” waffle, though. Which is kind of funny to me, as no type of waffle implies “health” to me in any way, given the manner in which it is usually served.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/132 "2013-02-25T19:08:08Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Wow, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. None of the above is remotely true. There are roughly 1500 _sections_ that make up FDA labeling regulations. You’re really obsessed with the idea that regulations fix all problems, or something. It’s kind of touching to see that much faith in our beleaguered government. Even the longest, detailed, and most stringent food regulations leave vast territory for the makers to present utterly false impressions and make endless statements a hairsbreadth from FDA-pure bullshit. The entire battle is over very specific statements involving specific words used in specific ways… and nearly everything else is fair game. Makers are free to invent terms, use words outside the regulated lists, and play Humpty-Dumpty with undefined terms like “spread” and “loaf.” If your argument is that FDA controls eliminate deception in food labeling, or even reduce it to any degree except in the most narrow chemical-analysis terms, I’d question whether you’ve even set foot in grocery store in the last thirty years. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/133 "2013-02-25T19:08:38Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > His point is that he finds it funny you have no issues with just taking a quarter of the pint of ice cream but eat an entire bag of chips if left unchecked. I still don’t understand. I agree with a “single serving” is in both contexts. With one, I find it easy to stick to a single serving. With the other, I don’t, so I don’t buy the larger servings. What’s odd about this? And I do sometimes buy the single serving Haagen-Dazses as well, which are great. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/134 "2013-02-25T19:11:18Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Using advertising to determine how, when or the quantities of a product to use I don’t understand. Serving sizes were determined by the FDA, using surveys of what people typically ate, in the 70s and 80s. Advertising has nothing to do with serving size. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/135 "2013-02-25T19:11:32Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Using advertising to determine how, when or the quantities of a product to use is far more alien to me than the idea that nutella is healthful/unhealthful. I can’t parse this. Can you put it less succinctly? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/136 "2013-02-25T19:14:45Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > You’re really obsessed with the idea that regulations fix all problems, or something. It’s kind of touching to see that much faith in our beleaguered government. Is this a fucking joke? My irony meter is sending a mushroom cloud up, right now. You’re the one who has been bitching for 3 pages about how these companies are unchecked an can do whatever they want. You’re factually incorrect, and have virtually no knowledge of the subject, from what I can tell. > [@](#): > > If your argument is that FDA controls eliminate deception in food labeling, or even reduce it to any degree except in the most narrow chemical-analysis terms, I’d question whether you’ve even set foot in grocery store in the last thirty years. You’ve done nothing to support your assertions. Of course food labeling does more than you’re claiming. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/137 "2013-02-25T19:14:51Z")
So what do you propose, **NitroPress**? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/138 "2013-02-25T19:16:29Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I still don’t understand. I agree with a “single serving” is in both contexts. With one, I find it easy to stick to a single serving. With the other, I don’t, so I don’t buy the larger servings. What’s odd about this? And I do sometimes buy the single serving Haagen-Dazses as well, which are great. Nothing, just that Dave is apparently the opposite. He has no issues with portioning chips but ice cream is a struggle. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/139 "2013-02-25T19:19:26Z")
LD, you haven’t contributed a thing except to claim repeatedly that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I have no more patience in trying to engage your contentious bullshit. Have a nice day, and a smear of Nutella or some other shit on toast to calm you down. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285/140 "2013-02-25T19:20:07Z")
Yeah, I don’t get it either. I like Nutella, but I think I’d instinctively know it wasn’t a “health food” even if it were called “Nature’s Bounty Organic Slimming Nutra-Paste” and displayed on the shelf between unflavored rice cakes and tubs of powdered kelp shake mix. It’s a jar of freakin’ chocolate sauce. As with his Xbox Live diatribe, this kerfuffle leads me to suspect that the OP expects a higher level of handholding than most when it comes to product marketing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nutella-most-deceptive-product-on-the-shelf/651285.md?page=8)