Chocolate spread? Check the nutritional value first!

The most famous chocolate spread is proven to be unhealthy, but you can go for one that won''t make you feel guilty that you''re not feeding your children properly!

Have you ever wondered why people eat? Yes, the body needs energy, measured in calories, but that is not the main reason. We eat because our bodies need nutrients! A healthy diet focuses on just that - providing the body with the macro and micro nutrients it needs to function properly. Energy comes with them. When we eat with only calories in mind, health breaks down. We take in enough energy, but not what we need, so we can end up quite overweight, but malnourished and consequently sick.

The most famous chocolate spread is proven to be unhealthy, but you can go for one that won''t make you feel guilty that you are not feeding your children properly!

The food that gives us the most energy but the least real nutrients is sweet food. These are often quite empty or rather poor, being high in sugar but low in protein, fibre, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. The saddest thing, of course, is that this is the very food that is often advertised as being for children - the very children who need the most nutrients to grow and develop!

Among the sweet products for children that are inappropriately advertised are the often criticised ''high milk and high calcium'' chocolates, which omit how much sugar and palm oil they contain. This is even more the case for chocolate spreads. But not all - more and more shops are also offering chocolate that is not unhealthy.

Three million to mislead parents

When you watch TV adverts, are you critical enough to believe everything they tell you? We have probably all worked out that a second''s worth of stain remover does not have the promised effect, that a slimming belt will not melt away the fatty deposits on your belly, that paying in a lottery ticket will not make you rich. The same should apply to food. But what when the media can be so persuasive ...

For years, the most famous chocolate spread brand advertised itself with the slogan ''healthy breakfast'', claiming that its product was rich in cocoa and hazelnuts. In the absence of regulation in the form of law, parents were happy to offer their children chocolate spread every morning, believing that they were providing a healthy breakfast. The truth is far from it: the cocoa and hazelnut content is minimal, and most of the spread is sugar and fat. In 2010, Athena Hohenberg from California felt betrayed when she discovered this fact - she had been feeding her child unhealthy food for years because of the manufacturer''s lies! And because Americans, unlike Europeans, are much quicker to take advantage of their rights under the legal system when they feel cheated, she decided to sue.

What was the result? Mrs Hohenberg won more than three million dollars from the manufacturer in a settlement! But she did not just take care of herself. She got the manufacturer to agree to changed labelling, advertising and marketing of the product. Today, we can all read exactly what is in the spread, it is no longer considered healthy and recommended, and, above all, it has lost its chocolate spread title. Institutions all over the world have taken the initiative to stipulate that, when the term chocolate spread is used, the product must contain a significant proportion of chocolate or cocoa, or it must be dropped.

Chocolate spread that cares for health

Can''t imagine your children eating pancakes without chocolate spread? The easiest way is to melt some good quality chocolate in a water bath and add a little coconut or other healthy oil or butter (cocoa, kikiriki, etc.), or you can buy ready-made spreads from quality chocolate and health food shops. These are rich in cocoa and hazelnuts, contain a selection of healthy fats and have no added sugar - when a sweeter taste is desired, healthy natural sweeteners such as stevia will do the trick. So pancakes or breakfast can be healthy, as long as you don''t buy cheap products and pay attention to quality - and always read the nutrition facts. Remember: it''s not the calories that matter, it''s the nutrients!