A standard two-tablespoon serving of Nutella contains roughly 21 grams of sugar, which is about 5 teaspoons. That’s more sugar than two chocolate chip cookies. By weight, Nutella is 58% processed sugar, making it the single largest ingredient in the jar, ahead of palm oil, hazelnuts, and cocoa.
Sugar Per Serving and Per Jar
Nutella’s official serving size is two tablespoons (37 grams). At 58% sugar by weight, that puts each serving at approximately 21 grams of sugar and around 200 calories. To put that in perspective, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams for men. A single serving of Nutella gets you most of the way there before you’ve eaten anything else.
A full 13-ounce (400g) jar contains roughly 57 teaspoons of sugar. That’s over four times more sugar than nuts in the jar. If you tend to spread Nutella thickly on toast or scoop it straight from the container, you’re likely eating well beyond the listed serving size, which is surprisingly small when you actually measure it out.
What’s Actually in the Jar
Nutella’s ingredient list reads: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, and a small amount of vanilla flavoring. Sugar comes first because it dominates the recipe at 58% of total weight. Palm oil is next at about 20%. Hazelnuts, the ingredient most people associate with Nutella, make up a much smaller share.
This composition is worth understanding because Nutella is often marketed alongside breakfast foods like toast and fruit, giving the impression it’s closer to peanut butter than to frosting. In reality, a comparable serving of natural peanut butter contains 1 to 2 grams of sugar. Nutella has roughly ten times that amount.
How Nutella Affects Blood Sugar
Despite its high sugar content, Nutella has a glycemic index of 33, which is considered low. The glycemic index measures how quickly a food raises your blood sugar on a scale from 0 to 100. Foods under 55 are classified as low-glycemic. Nutella scores well on this scale because its fat content (from palm oil and hazelnuts) slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream.
This doesn’t mean Nutella is a healthy choice. A low glycemic index tells you about the speed of the blood sugar spike, not the total amount of sugar you’re consuming. You’re still taking in 21 grams of added sugar per serving. The fat that slows absorption also adds calories, bringing the total to about 200 per serving, mostly from sugar and oil rather than from protein or fiber.
How Nutella Compares to Other Spreads
- Nutella: ~21g sugar per 2-tablespoon serving, 58% sugar by weight
- Peanut butter (natural): 1–2g sugar per 2-tablespoon serving
- Honey: ~17g sugar per tablespoon, but typically used in smaller amounts
- Jam or jelly: ~10–13g sugar per tablespoon
- Chocolate frosting: ~19g sugar per 2-tablespoon serving
Nutella lands closer to chocolate frosting than to any nut butter in terms of sugar content. The hazelnut and cocoa flavors can make it feel like a sophisticated choice, but nutritionally it functions as a dessert topping.
Practical Ways to Cut the Sugar
If you enjoy Nutella and want to reduce your sugar intake, the simplest approach is portion control. Measure out a single tablespoon instead of two, spread it thin, and pair it with something that adds fiber or protein, like whole grain bread or banana slices. This cuts the sugar to around 10 grams, which is more manageable within a daily budget.
Several brands now sell chocolate hazelnut spreads with less sugar, some using cocoa butter instead of palm oil and cutting the sugar content by half or more. Reading the nutrition label matters here, because “reduced sugar” on the front of a jar can still mean 8 to 12 grams per serving. Comparing the grams of sugar per serving across brands gives you a clearer picture than marketing claims.