I eat a pretty regular, balanced, more-or-less healthy diet. I am not overly strict but I avoid things like Doritos, McDonalds, and Snickers (I will have the occasional candy bar). I'm fine to go out and have a burger and fries or pizza or other things a nutritionist might have issues with. My one vice, though, is Nutella. I spread it on bread, bananas, mix it with peanut butter, sometimes put it on cereal, etc. How bad is it for me if I go through a jar of Nutella every few weeks?
Nutella is one of the cornerstones of an effective ultrarunning diet. Do not underestimate its unholy power in the mountains.
If you are doing lots of miles, Nutella is your friend.
A 13 oz. jar has the equivalent sugar content of 5 sodas roughly speaking. There is some saturated fat, too, but it's not trans fat at least. As a vice, it seems fairly tame (assuming a 13 oz. jar every few weeks).
You could also easily make your own cocoa hazelnut spread, eliminate the artificial flavoring (use real vanilla), use a less saturated fatty oil (perhaps grapeseed), and cut the sugar in half or quarter it even. You'd then have something you could enjoy that much more. Thinking about it makes me want to try it out myself now.
Grinding hazelnuts finely enough to be worth it is challenging. I don't know how to make that part work.
Soak them in warm water first then used a food processor. Worked for me with cashews at least.
I wouldn't worry about it. I eat that some, but a jar lasts me 3 or 4 months, easy. Knowing how little sugar is in it, though, why not?
tried it once wrote:
Grinding hazelnuts finely enough to be worth it is challenging. I don't know how to make that part work.
Use pre-ground hazelnut flower
FFF wrote:
Knowing how little sugar is in it...
I'm confused. The last time I looked at a Nutella nutritional label (a few years ago), it said the leading ingredient was sugar.
In fact, taking a quick look now, I see that Nutella is about 55% sugar and 30% fat--so it's roughly the equivalent of spreading a chocolate bar on bread.
. . . Not that I think there's anything necessarily wrong with that (beyond the whole "sugar kills" thing)! If a jar is 13oz., that's about the equivalent of a half-dozen chocolate bars. If those are spread out over a few weeks (or months), I really don't see any problem. Enjoy!