Food companies desperately seek to improve their products in order to make them healthier, even superficially. We have already analyzed the content of Avenacao and now we venture with the new version of Nocilla, with zero added sugars, fewer calories and with Stevia. Is it as healthy as it seems?
Little by little the market is filled with new products that adapt to the new current food trends, so far everything is perfect and we are eternally grateful, so what is the problem? Well, many times they try to cast something that is not as healthy and with that they manage to deceive a large percentage of the population.
What exactly is Nocilla 0%?
The essence of Nocilla remains the same, that is, the Spanish brand cocoa and hazelnut cream that fights against Nutella remains the same, only some ingredients and the message have changed. Trying to enter the healthy market is one of the highest priorities for this type of product. For this reason, many renew their ingredients to make them less caloric on the label.
Nocilla 0% is a cocoa and hazelnut cream that promises to maintain its original texture and flavor, but with a renewed recipe. This new product presentation boasts of having no added sugars and that they have replaced refined sugar with Stevia, a very fashionable sweetener today.
Stevia It comes from a sweet plant that originates from South America and is from the same family as sunflowers or chrysanthemums. In Stevia leaves there are up to 11 different sweet components known as steviol glycosides.
To all this, is Stevia healthier than sugar? The answer is clear, and that is that steviol glycosides go unnoticed by the body and that is why by using Stevia empty calories are not being added, nor by consuming this natural sweetener, glucose levels in the blood are increased. blood.
So yes, Stevia is healthy, but that does not make Nocilla 0% deserve the healthy seal. Not much less.
Classic Nocilla vs Nocilla 0% sugar
To be aware of the changes that exist in the components, we show you the list of ingredients of both options:
Classic nutella. Sugar, vegetable oils (palm, sunflower and high oleic sunflower), defatted cocoa powder (8%), skimmed milk powder (5%), hazelnuts (4%), milk solids, emulsifier (soy lecithin ), smell. May contain other nuts.
Nocilla 0,0%. Sweeteners (maltitol, steviol glycosides), vegetable oils (sunflower and high oleic sunflower), polydextrose, defatted cocoa powder (8%), skimmed milk powder (5%), hazelnuts (4%), solids dairy, emulsifiers (soy lecithin, E 5), aromas. May contain other nuts.
- Is it true that it does not contain added sugars? It does not contain sugar, it is true, but it is replaced by sweeteners that have the same function as the previously named chemical substance. Also, the first ingredient is sweeteners, so more than half of the product is still very unhealthy.
- Is it a cocoa and hazelnut spread? If we look closely, cocoa only has a presence in 8% and hazelnuts in 5%. If we really want to have a nut cream, we suggest you make it at home as we teach you here. You will realize that no chemicals or sweeteners are needed to make it taste spectacular.
- Are the fats it contains healthy? As is almost all ultra-processed products, the presence of palm oil could not be missing. Avoiding this ingredient is essential for good health and nutrition. In addition, it is the second most prevalent in the Nocilla; a real bomb.
Nutritional values of Nocilla 0%
This cocoa and hazelnut spread with Stevia and without palm oil (thank you) has a very impoverished nutritional table where we do see that there are fewer fats compared to the classic one, but it is still a better option to create it ourselves at home with pure cocoa and hazelnuts (when you try that, come back here and thank us).
According to the Nocilla website itself, for every 100 grams of product they provide us with more than 440 kilocalories, 29 grams of fat of which 5,2 grams are saturated (very bad fats), 21 grams monounsaturated and 2,6 grams polyunsaturated, 52 grams of carbohydrates of which 5,5 grams are sugars and 44 grams are polyalcohols, 12 grams of fiber food, 4,5 grams of protein and 0,10 grams of salt.
On the website of the Spanish company, they claim that this Nocilla 0% with Stevia and without palm oil has 35% less saturated fat than other cocoa creams on the market, according to an independent Nielsen study.
Also, this cream not vegan since it has dairy, but it is interesting to comment on it, just in case. If it is suitable for coeliacs because it has the "gluten-free" seal.
And the 0% cocoa and milk Nocilla?
The ingredients of this Nocilla are quite similar to unsweetened cocoa. Specifically, it is made up of «sweeteners (maltitol, steviol glycosides), high oleic sunflower oil, polydextrose, skimmed milk powder (6,9%), milk solids, cocoa butter, defatted cocoa powder (4,3%), hazelnuts (3,9, 476%), emulsifiers (soy lecithin, E XNUMX), aromas. May contain other nuts«.
It is striking that there are ingredients changed in order and with a slight difference in quantity, such as powdered milk or defatted cocoa. And, as we can see, the nutritional values per 100 grams of product are practically the same:
- Energy: 446 calories
- Fat: 30 grams
- of which Monounsaturated: 22 grams
- of which Polyunsaturated: 2.7 grams
- of which Saturated: 5.4 grams
- Carbohydrates: 52 grams
- of which Sugars: 7.8 grams
- of which Polyalcohols: 43 grams
- Dietary fiber: 11 grams
- Protein: 4.3 grams
- Salt: 0.15 grams
This sugar-free cocoa and milk Nocilla has a few more calories than the original 0%. This may be due to the fact that only high oleic sunflower oil is used, instead of the mixture with common sunflower. As a consequence, it also has one more gram of fat. However, it is practically ridiculous to compare both products, since they are made up of the same ingredients and in similar amounts.
In this case, we will not be facing a healthy cocoa cream either, even if it contains sweetener instead of added sugar. Logically, it will have fewer calories than sugar, since sweeteners do not contain them. But the amount of saturated fat is truly alarming. Additionally, these sweeteners can have detrimental effects on gut health if consumed in excess. So it may be normal to notice bloating or belly pain.
Is it still an ultra-processed to avoid?
A resounding yes. As much as its latest spot is starred by Youtubers and that the video itself makes it seem like a cooler product, the reality is that it is still an ultra-processed product that is just as nutritionally poor as the classic Nocilla and almost 90% of creams cocoa on the current market. That it contains zero added sugars or that they bet on Stevia, does not improve the option much more, to be honest.
Is it lower in calories? Yes (although not many), but it is always better that you have preferences for the nutritional contribution, rather than for the number of calories. A handful of natural nuts can contain many more calories than five cookies, for example.
Worst of all and where we see the most serious failure is that this product is aimed at children and adolescents. In the case in which we want to offer it to the child, the right thing to do is to consult a specialist, to find out how much to give and how often it can be "repeated". Otherwise, if you eat 30 grams every day, together with the usual intake of sugars, the chances of suffering diabetes type 2 in adulthood they skyrocket.
No one is bitter about a sweet and many of us cannot avoid taking a little cocoa cream on time. What you should keep in mind is that the new version is not healthier, even if they want us to believe so.