Nutella is not great for cholesterol, mainly because of its palm oil and high sugar content. A single one-ounce serving contains about 3.1 grams of saturated fat and over 15 grams of sugar, both of which work against healthy cholesterol levels when consumed regularly. That said, an occasional thin spread on toast is unlikely to cause problems on its own.
What’s Actually in Nutella
Nutella’s ingredient list is short, but the proportions matter. Sugar is the first ingredient, followed by palm oil, then hazelnuts, cocoa, and milk powder. A one-ounce serving (roughly two tablespoons) delivers about 9.2 grams of total fat, 3.1 grams of which are saturated. It also packs 15.4 grams of sugar into that same serving, nearly all of it added sugar rather than naturally occurring.
For context, current dietary guidelines recommend keeping saturated fat below 20 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet. One serving of Nutella takes up about 15% of that limit before you’ve eaten anything else. And because Nutella tastes more like dessert than a savory condiment, it’s easy to use two or three times the suggested serving without thinking about it.
How Palm Oil Affects LDL Cholesterol
The saturated fat in Nutella comes almost entirely from palm oil, which is 40 to 50% saturated fat, mostly in the form of palmitic acid. A meta-analysis published in The Journal of Nutrition found that palm oil raised LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) by a meaningful amount compared to oils lower in saturated fat, like olive or sunflower oil. The increase averaged 0.24 mmol/L, which is enough to shift someone’s lipid panel in the wrong direction over time.
There’s a small silver lining: the structure of palmitic acid in palm oil differs from animal fat. In palm oil, about 70% of the palmitic acid sits in a position on the fat molecule that may be slightly less well absorbed in the gut. Some researchers have suggested this makes palm oil marginally less harmful to cholesterol than butter or lard, gram for gram. But “less harmful than butter” is a low bar, and the clinical data still shows a clear LDL-raising effect.
One thing Nutella does avoid is trans fat. The palm oil used is not hydrogenated, so it doesn’t contain the artificially produced trans fats that are especially damaging to cholesterol ratios. That’s a genuine positive, but it doesn’t cancel out the saturated fat issue.
Sugar’s Role in Your Lipid Profile
Cholesterol concerns aren’t just about fat. The sugar load in Nutella matters too, though it affects your blood lipids differently than saturated fat does. A systematic review by the USDA found a consistent relationship between higher added sugar intake and elevated triglycerides, another type of blood fat linked to heart disease risk. High triglycerides often travel alongside low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, creating a pattern called dyslipidemia that increases cardiovascular risk.
With roughly 19 grams of added sugar per two-tablespoon serving, Nutella delivers nearly as much sugar as a candy bar. 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 can consume more than half or three-quarters of that daily budget, leaving very little room for sugar from any other source.
The Glycemic Index Surprise
Despite all that sugar, Nutella has a surprisingly low glycemic index of about 33, which puts it in the “low GI” category. This is largely because the fat content slows sugar absorption. But a low glycemic index doesn’t mean a food is healthy for your heart. It simply means blood sugar rises gradually rather than spiking. The total amount of sugar and saturated fat still matters for cholesterol and triglycerides regardless of how quickly it enters your bloodstream.
Nutella vs. Peanut Butter
The comparison most people want is Nutella versus peanut butter, and peanut butter wins by a wide margin for cholesterol health. In a two-tablespoon serving, natural peanut butter contains about 3 grams of sugar compared to Nutella’s 21 grams. Peanut butter also provides around 8 grams of protein versus Nutella’s 2 to 3.5 grams.
More importantly for cholesterol, the fats in peanut butter are predominantly unsaturated, the type that either has a neutral effect on LDL or can modestly improve it. Nutella’s fats skew heavily toward saturated fat from palm oil. If you’re spreading something on toast and watching your cholesterol numbers, natural peanut butter (the kind with just peanuts and maybe salt) is a dramatically better choice.
Lower-Sugar Hazelnut Spread Options
If you love the hazelnut-chocolate flavor but want to limit the damage to your lipid panel, several alternatives cut the sugar significantly. Nutella’s benchmark is 21 grams of sugar and 19 grams of added sugar per two tablespoons. Here’s how some alternatives compare:
- Gooey Hazelnut Cocoa Spread: 6 grams of sugar (5 grams added), 8 grams of fat
- Barely Hazelnut & Cocoa Spread: 3.2 grams of sugar (2.2 grams added), 12.5 grams of fat
- Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut and Almond Butter: 8 grams of sugar (all added), 16 grams of fat
- Artisana Organics Hazelnut Cacao Spread: 9 grams of sugar (7 grams added), 13 grams of fat
The lowest-sugar options cut added sugar by 70 to 90% compared to Nutella. Total fat stays similar across most brands because hazelnuts and cocoa butter are naturally fatty, but these alternatives tend to get a higher proportion of their fat from nuts rather than palm oil, meaning more unsaturated fat and less saturated fat.
How Much Nutella Is Too Much
If your cholesterol levels are already healthy and you eat a diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, and unsaturated fats, an occasional tablespoon of Nutella is not going to derail your numbers. The problems start when Nutella becomes a daily habit at generous portions. Two tablespoons every morning adds up to roughly 22 grams of saturated fat and over 130 grams of added sugar per week from a single condiment.
For anyone already managing high LDL cholesterol or elevated triglycerides, Nutella is one of the easier things to swap out. Replacing it with natural nut butter or a lower-sugar hazelnut spread removes a concentrated source of both saturated fat and added sugar without requiring a dramatic change in routine. The combination of those two ingredients is what makes Nutella particularly unfriendly to cholesterol, because each one raises cardiovascular risk through a different pathway, and together they compound the effect.