Peanut butter vs. Nutella
Remember when Nutella started airing those ridiculous "part of a healthy breakfast! eat it on whole wheat toast!" commercials in a misguided attempt to position themselves as a healthy food? Remember how we all laughed and pointed and mocked?
Well...the joke may have been at least partially on us. I spend a lot of time analyzing food nutritional content. Knowledge is power! And I am quite fond of Nutella. So I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of its most direct analog in the "things you put on toast" department: peanut butter. Peanut butter, while not really a health food (it's very calorie dense), is certainly something people often eat for protein and nutritional balance.
The standard serving size for both foods is 2 tablespoons. That's actually kind of a lot, it's a glob the size of a golf ball. I wouldn't usually put more than one tablespoon of either one on toast, so I'll be using 1 tablespoon as the comparison size. My comparison peanut butter is ordinary Jif creamy (naturally there are healthier peanut butters, but for the purposes of this discussion I'm using the most common brand and type).
Calories
Peanut butter = 95
Nutella = 100
In other words, no significant difference.
Total Fat/Saturated Fat
Peanut butter = 8g/1.5g
Nutella = 6.5g/1.75g
This is more or less also a wash. The peanut butter has slightly more total fat, but the Nutella has slightly more saturated fat.
Sodium
Peanut butter = 75 mg
Nutella = 7.5 mg
Unsurprisingly, peanut butter has ten times more sodium than Nutella. Its sodium content isn't huge but if you're watching sodium, which is extremely difficult, every little bit can make a difference.
Total Carbohydrates/Sugars
Peanut butter = 3.5g/1.5g
Nutella = 11g/10.5g
This is, not at all shockingly, where Nutella takes the biggest hit: sugar. Now, 10.5 grams is not a whoppingly huge amount of sugar. For comparison, a container of Fage 2% Greek yogurt with peach contains 19g, a container of Yoplait Light Nonfat yogurt contains 14g and a tall Starbucks mocha contains 25g. I'm a sugar-sensitive post-bariatric patient and I can have up to 15g per meal. But for low-carbers, peanut butter is the clear winner here.
Protein
Peanut butter = 3.5g
Nutella = 1.5g
Neither are protein powerhouses, but the peanut butter definitely has the edge here. For being thought of as a protein hero, peanut butter has less than you might think. The ideal for a food to be a high-protein food is that it has 0.1 gram of protein per calorie (which is damn hard for any food that isn't meat or dairy - beans come the closest). Peanut butter only has 0.04 grams of protein per calorie.
Other nutrients
Neither are significant sources of fiber (PB has 1g, Nutella has 0.5g), both have zero cholesterol. Each has the same amount of iron (4%), neither contains vitamin A or C, and Nutella has 4% calcium whereas peanut butter has none. So neither are super vitamin/mineral rich but the edge is to Nutella there.
Looking at these numbers, I have to conclude that Nutella is not a totally unreasonable alternative to peanut butter. It's worth noting that they are each worth the same number of Weight Watchers points (5 per tablespoon). They are virtually identical in calorie and fat content, Nutella has more sugar and less protein, peanut butter has more sodium and no calcium.
But there is an intangible to consider here. Nutella is...well, Nutella. It feels naughty. It tastes like an indulgence. If you spread one tablespoon on some good toast and use it like a dessert or a treat, you could sure do a lot worse for about 200 calories (most breads are about 100 calories a slice, give or take 20 - the high-fiber, whole wheat bread I eat is exactly 100). And eating this snack has often satisfied my chocolate/sweets cravings and kept me from making much worse food choices. That, I think, is something peanut butter can't really do.
Now I want some Nutella toast. Yum.