In Defense of Nutella (In Condemnation of the FDA)

While tooling around on NPR’s website today (I was hoping that by choosing the verb “tooling” that statement would sound less pretentious), I came across an article that literally made me say, “Really?” Out loud. Into my (cold) empty apartment. You can read the article here, but I will provide a slightly biased and abridged summary below.

There is a mother who recently discovered that Nutella is unhealthy and she is (rightfully) upset because her daughter has been eating this “healthy” snack for years. She was “tricked” by those Nutella commercials where the best mom in the world spreads a glob of chocolate delight on a piece of whole-wheat toast and gives it to her three children for breakfast. The plaintiff is also frustrated because Nutella is found in the peanut-butter aisle, so she assumed it had similar nutritional qualities. When she was told by some friends that Nutella is basically a spreadable candy, she was outraged, and decided to sue Ferrero, the company that makes Nutella. (If this company sounds familiar, it’s probably because it’s the same company that makes those Ferrero Rocher chocolates…you know the ones with Nutella inside of them…)

Do we really live in a country where you can purchase Nutella and feed it to your kid on a daily basis and then sue someone else because you didn’t read the nutrition label? How can you see Nutella, run a knife through Nutella, or taste Nutella without knowing that it is bad for you? Just by looking at it, I can tell that it will make me fatter. If I decide that I want to weigh thirty to forty pounds more than I currently do, I know that I should begin by eating a steady diet of Nutella. And just in case I wasn’t sure about that, all I have to do is turn the Nutella container around and glance at the nutrition label for about 10 seconds. Even if I wasn’t a strong reader, words like “sugar,” “fat,” and “calories” would probably not elude me. And the numbers following them would make sense because they aren’t words. In a 2 tablespoon serving (will 2 tablespoons fit on a piece of whole-wheat bread?), there are 200 calories, 100 of those calories are from fat, and there are 21 grams of sugar. Did this woman seriously buy Nutella for years without referencing the nutrition label? Is she really so naïve to believe that because the mom on the commercial had three normal sized children that she was “feeding” Nutella “everyday” that it was okay for her to do the same? She might also try to sue Ferrero Rocher for reparations of severe emotional damage when a friend informs her that the Nutella-TV-family isn’t a real family, that the kitchen they are eating in is actually a sound studio, and that the children don’t eat Nutella every day. In fact, they aren’t children anymore. They all grew up and are ill-adjusted, wanton young adults in their early twenties…with piercings. And the argument that Nutella shouldn’t be placed on a shelf near peanut butter is crap. You know what else is on the shelf with peanut butter? That Goober Grape peanut butter/jelly combo (for the particularly lazy sandwich maker) and it’s horrible for you, too. It actually has 240 calories, 110 from fat, and 21 grams of sugar. Should that be moved to another part of the grocery store also? Or is it just a matter of time before Smuckers gets sued for that.

But the more I think about this, I know that I can understand where this woman is coming from and I can empathize with her frustration. Despite her gullibility (and apparent lack of common sense) I too have found myself very frustrated with the food industry and their false and misleading advertisement. Last year, I watched a documentary called Food Inc. and for weeks I didn’t know what to eat. I ended up losing about 10 pounds because I was living off of farmer’s market apples, fresh bread from a local bakery, oatmeal, and Stonyfield Farms’yogurt (Banilla is the best, Blueberry is a distant second). I had to relent when I started feeling faint in the shower. Most of the meat in the grocery store is chocked full of hormones and covered in bacteria that can only be spread through the most disgusting practices…and there is nothing on the packaging that tells the consumer this. (Can you imagine? “Contains traces of fecal matter!”) In fact, there’s a cute picture of a happy little farm (instead of the steel, dismal factory the meat actually came from). Artificial sweeteners, horrible substances with side-effects we have yet to discover, are found in more and more products every day. Aspartame triggers debilitating migraines when I ingest the tiniest amount (Tic Tacs even) and companies aren’t required to mention these ingredients in their commercials or on the front of their packages. (But hey Nutella lady, I have the good sense to turn the packages around). Laws have been proposed to make consumers more aware of what is in their food, but considering the fact that many members of the FDA own sizeable amounts of stock in some of the largest food corporations, it’s not surprising that this legislation doesn’t make it very far.

So you see, Nutella Mom, instead of suing Ferrero Rocher, you really need to be contacting your local and state representatives. Attempting to sue Nutella isn’t going to keep the food industry from falsely advertising that their products are safe, healthy, and natural. The companies are doing this because they are allowed to, and they are allowed to because it makes money, and our economy is so desperate that consumer rights and protection can, will, and are taking a backseat to capitalistic gains. And companies will continue to get away with this type of behavior as more and more people stop reading the fine print.

So Nutella lady: I (arrogantly) applaud your frustration, and I kind of hope for your sake, and the sake of all consumers, that it works out for you. Who knows, maybe your mockumentary of a case will make it to the Supreme Court and change food legislation for good. But I doubt it. And I still think you're silly, and a little dumb, for not knowing that Nutella is bad for you.