Is Nutella the root of all evil?

Judging by the comments on this post, some people obviously think so. It was written after Nutella held a bloggers' event last summer and when they invited me to a more northerly version of the same thing at Stockley Farm Park in Cheshire, I decided to go along.

As I have previously discussed before on this blog, eating any breakfast is better for children than none at all - and that's probably true for adults. Some people think that giving your child Nutella at breakfast time automatically puts you in the "bad parent" category. I realise that some people will think that whatever information you present them. But is it necessarily the case?

A standard portion of Nutella is 15g. That's actually a generous portion. I did some experiments at home and even spreading it on thickly on a standard piece of toast came to 10g. Yes, I am that sad, before you ask. I also looked at some of the comparisons on the Nutella site and weighed my own versions out. So let's compare a few things you typically put on toast for breakfast:

Nutella (standard 15g portion)               80 calories, 8.3g sugar, 4.7g fat (1.5g saturated)
Nutella (my 10g portion)                        53 calories, 5.5g sugar, 3.1g, (1g saturated)
Jam and butter (standard 15g/10g)       114 calories, 7.2g sugar, 8.2g fat (5.2g saturated)
Jam (15g) and butter (my 15g/7g)         92 calories, 7.2g sugar, 5.5g fat (3.5g saturated)
Peanut butter (15g)                                90 calories, 1.5g sugar, 7.5g fat (1.7g saturated)

Out of those options, Nutella is not bad. It's not brilliant either but it's not the worsy and my option has the lowest calories and least fat. It does have a lot of sugar added (and vegetable oil), but it actually has a low GI of 33, lower in fact than the bread it's likely to be spread on.

A few years ago, the ASA upheld a complaint against one of Nutella's adverts which claimed it could be considered part of a balanced breakfast. Nutella are no longer able to claim that and the phraseology used now is that it could be part of a "tasty breakfast". The issue is of course with the amounts of sugar and fat in it, but anything sweet is going to have sugar in it and no sugar is particularly good for you. Just ask the parents of children whose teeth have decayed because they ate lots of fruit or raisins. The sugar is there to make eating the toast more enjoyable but that's also true of jam (and some peanut butters have lots more added sugar than listed here).

I don't ban foods from my children's diet. I don't ban them from my own so how can I? One of the speakers at the event was Professor Karen Pine who said that the mother's diet was the single biggest influencing factor over whether a child was a good eater or not. (I suspect it would be the diet of the main carer if they had a bigger role in the child's care than the mother, if for example, she worked full time or she was absent for some reason). Mothers set their children an example by what they eat and what their children see them eating. If you've ever wondered why you cook your children lovely healthy meals and all they want is the chocolate biscuit or crisps you're eating, that's why!

I don't ban things because I learnt about something called the reticular activating system a few years ago. You know how you think about red cars and there suddenly seems to be red cars everywhere? That's your reticular activating system in your brain kicking into gear. If you ban things, it doesn't understand the "no" bit, it just thinks about the thing you've banned and you crave it even more! In other words, banning things is futile, it just makes an issue out of it - whether you're a child or an adult. Banning it makes you want it more. Lots of adults who had sweets and junk food banned by their parents during childhood grow up and faced with freedom of choice, opt for the banned food - and go totally the other way, having a worse diet overall. I want Monkey and Missy Woo to learn about moderation which they don't learn if certain foods are denied them. Instead, I try to control the frequency they have less healthy foods and just make sure that their overall diet is healthy.

We're all living reality. Mornings can be fraught in any household, let alone one with children in it. There may be time to make or prepare the perfect breakfast, but that's unlikely if you have a nursery or school run to do. If your children are reticent eaters, why not give them something like Nutella on toast? And even if they're not, what's wrong with that? I don't mean every day - when we have some in, the children will have some every few days and I don't rush to replace an empty jar. I wonder if we overthink this in the UK - French children seem to have Nutella for breakfast quite a lot and no-one seems to mind, nor does it seem to do the children much harm.

If the judicious use of Nutella makes me a bad parent, then I am guilty as charged. Just as often as they eat sweets, crisps or other things like Nutella, my children choose healthier options as well. At the Nutella event, Missy Woo (who had come along for the ride) was offered some breakfast. She said no thanks because she wasn't hungry and had eaten at home. One of the options was Nutella on toast, one of her favourite breakfasts.

Missy Woo with friend (Amy's 5yo) "helping" to make a smoothie

We had a great time at the briefing, which ended with bloggers and children doing a cookalong of some Nutella recipes with Alan Coxon, the TV chef. It was a lot of fun although Missy Woo called Nutella "chocolate spread" loudly, which caused a few eyebrows to raise. (It's actually about 7% cocoa and technically more a hazelnut spread. Oops.) After the briefing, we had a lovely trip around the farm and even had a tractor ride - hence my  Silent Sunday picture this week.

You might think this obliges me to write good things about Nutella. They haven't asked me to write anything about them. I probably wouldn't go to an event for a brand I really don't like. I went with an open mind. I still don't think that Nutella is a perfectly healthy and nutritional food - after all, it contains a lot of sugar and fat. But if the worst thing you do is allow your children to eat Nutella as part of their breakfast, I don't think you'll have much to worry about. I certainly won't be after you.

(I have not been paid to write this post. I attended this event with my daughter. Nutella gave us a goody bag to take away containing promotional items and samples, and sent some homemade bread and Nutella to my home beforehand. I have not received any further payment and the opinions stated here are my own.)

Thanks to Amy from And 1 more means four.... and 1 more for giving permission for me to publish the photograph of her daughter with Missy Woo. 

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chinese Ribs

I decided to blog this recipe when I mentioned it on Twitter and immediately got a request from The Coffee Lady for the recipe. It's not your average slow cooker recipe - it doesn't need as much cooking but it is a "bung it all in and leave" type thing, with some grilling at the end. I have two variations in the recipe book I got this from - the other is maple glazed ribs, but this is much nicer. The original recipe suggest eating it with some coleslaw but rice is nice with it too. In the pic below, I cooked some rice with a bit of stock and some coconut cream, and stirred in some soy sauce and petits pois near the end of cooking. The cooking time is listed as 5 to 7 hours but I would imagine it could be cooked in less time than that as the meat is falling off the bones and the bones disintegrating.

Chinese Ribs
Serves 4

1.25kg/2.5lb pork ribs
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, thickly sliced
2 bay leaves (entirely optional)
2 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp salt
1 litre/1.75 pints boiling water

For the glaze:
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
juice of 1 orange (tho I often use about 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice)

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for 5-7 hours or until tender. Mix the ingredients for the glaze with about 100 ml of stock from the slow cooker pot. Drain the ribs, transfer to a a grill pan lined with foil (preferably on a rack) and preheat the grill to high. Cover the ribs with the glaze  - I use a silicon pastry brush for this but you could spoon some over each rib. Grill for about 15 minutes, turning once or twice. I often take them out every 5 minutes and brush more glaze on as they cook, continuing until all the glaze is used. They're done once they are browned and sticky all over.

What do your kids eat for breakfast?

Do you insist on only healthy options? Or do you take the view that anything is better than nothing? Do yours even HAVE breakfast?

I know, that last question sounds shocking but I went to a event called Snap, Crackle and Blog at Kellogg's UK headquarters last Friday, and they revealed that 1 in 6 children do not eat breakfast, 1.7 million of which are children under 6. I think that last statistic shocked me most - babies and toddlers, with tiny tummies and who need to have food regularly, going without breakfast. That's awful - I can't believe all of those 1.7 million children don't want to eat in the mornings. On top of that, school children spend £646 MILLION pounds on the way to school buying snacks and drinks. That's over £3.5 million every school day.

Kellogg's are obviously the market leader in the UK breakfast cereal market. Their market share is way ahead of their nearest competitor - something like 40% with the next biggest around the 15% mark. Obviously, it is in their interest to tell a group of mum bloggers that statistic, because maybe our blogs about the event will mention it and maybe more people will buy cereals to eat breakfast. But is that so bad?

We all know that breakfast is a positive thing. It helps us to function better throughout the day. Getting a child to eat breakfast is a habit we want them to have for life. But many of the breakfast cereals on the market have what people perceive to be large amounts of sugar in them - think Coco Pops - and consider that to be bad. When we were there, and we were discussing this with one of the Kellogg's dietitians, I remembered a programme I watched a couple of years ago made by Professor Lesley Regan looking at children's products and part of which investigated sugary cereals. Lo and behold, I have managed to find a video of that programme for you to watch here (and funnily enough, Kellogg's are featured). It also features one of my favourite bits of trivia from last Friday - that most people who consume Frosties are actually young men, rather than small children. Brilliant.



So, maybe we all need to relax about things like that - they get so many other things from it. For instance, cereals are now the leading dietary source of iron for most children. Speaking for myself, I am happier if Monkey and Missy Woo have the healthiest options for breakfast but occasionally, they have Chocolate Weetabix, and sometimes for a special treat, I buy them chocolate spread for special breakfasts. But when it's run out, I don't automatically replace those things and they are happy enough having less sugary cereals like Rice Krispies. Missy Woo is currently having a big porridge phase and will devour bowls of it with only a few raisins added to provide sweetness. I'm happy with that balance - they understand that some things are treats and not to be eaten every day. Were I to have a really finicky child and a sugary cereal was the one thing they would eat for breakfast, I'd give it to them. So shoot me.

Still, Kellogg's say they are looking to reduce the sugar content of some of their sweeter cereals. That has to be a gradual thing because tastes change slowly, although they can be changed. The same applies to cereals. There will come a point where they can't reduce it any further because we just won't eat it. I'm thinking of some reduced salt and sugar baked beans that taste so bland, I want to add salt so I don't buy them.

Beyond the serious side of nutritional messages, it was a great event and I met some lovely bloggers for the first time, and some others for the second or third time. Kellogg's had us "making" our own cereal - and even designing our own cereal packet. I use the term designing loosely as I am so not crafty, it's embarrassing. Still, I think I did OK - and the cereal is actually quite edible. Here's mine, along with a few things that Kellogg's gave us to take away.

And yes, that is my face on a Cornflakes packet! If you saw my Silent Sunday post this week, hopefully all is now explained - they took photos of all of us at the start and then printed them on either a packet of Cornflakes or Rice Krispies for us to take away. Incidentally, did you know that the cockerel on the packet is called Cornelius? (Geddit?) I didn't!

Because I can't fit them all in, I've put pictures from the morning into a slideshow for you to peruse at your leisure.



Apart from coming away with arms laden with stuff, the one thing that stuck with me is this: children need breakfast. And as things go, cereal ain't necessarily that bad an option. If your child will only eat the sugariest thing on the supermarket shelf, let them have it. In the grand scheme of things, it's no biggie. If that's OK by Professor Regan, then it's OK by me.