By Se Ri Lee '19
Freshman year of high school, I was obsessed with Nutella. Every day after cross country practice, I would eat one or two packs of Nutella with breadsticks and still crave for more. My daily Nutella-eating habits finally ended the day I saw an acne-covered face glaring back at myself from the mirror, exposing the guilt of having eaten too much.
All throughout the rest of freshman year and even until now, I managed to fight off the temptation to eat Nutella. And surprisingly, I stopped craving it.
During that time, I couldn’t stop wondering whether there were better alternatives, whether Nutella itself could be made healthier. In this post, I want to share with you how my dad and I redesigned this chocolate hazelnut spread to make it a little bit healthier.
One of the ingredient that makes Nutella unhealthy is palm oil, a type of saturated fat.
A fat is a type of lipid called a triglyceride, a form of an ester consisting of a glycerol and three fatty acid groups.
You may have heard that not all fats are bad for you. Some fats like omega-3, found in salmon, sardine, and walnuts, and olive oil are actually healthy if consumed in small amounts. The degree of healthiness depends primarily on whether the fat is saturated or unsaturated.
Carbon atoms in a saturated fat are literally “saturated” with hydrogens. In other words, the carbons are bonded to the maximum amount of hydrogen atoms they can hold, making only single bonds. Unsaturated fats, on the other hand, contain both single and double bonds, making the carbons hold fewer hydrogen atoms.
Shown above are the chemical structures of stearic acid, a saturated fat, and oleic acid, an unsaturated fat. As you can see, the two molecules have approximately the same molecular mass, but the unsaturated fat occupies a far bigger volume, which accounts for its smaller density. This difference in density is what makes saturated fats solids at room temperature and unsaturated fats liquids.
When consumed, the solid particles of saturated fats can clog blood vessels, slowing down or possibly preventing blood circulation.
So, my dad and I wondered: instead of palm oil, why not coconut oil, a type of unsaturated fat? But then the major problem we confronted was the consistency. Since coconut oil is a liquid at room temperature, will we be able to preserve Nutella’s original thick, velvety texture?
Then we thought, why not add cornstarch?
Since cornstarch is usually added to soups or broths to make them thicker, wouldn't it also preserve the thickness and richness of the Nutella?
Starch is a type of carbohydrate that can thicken liquid meals by absorbing water from them. However, adding large amounts of starch would cause the outer part of the starch molecule to become gelatinous, preventing the inner part of the molecule from interacting with the water. That way, the starch would clump in the water and not be able to thicken the liquid. The key to preventing this from happening is to add small increments of starch to a hot liquid.
Sources https://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/7-ways-make-soup-creamier-thicker-more-satisfying-0158999/
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/09/better-than-nutella/
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