Is Nesquik healthy? We take a close look
Nesquik is definitely the most popular brand of chocolate milk powder in the UK - it originally launched in the USA, but has been making milk taste better in the UK since 1957. The powder is so popular that it has spawned a range of cereal and cereal bars which all have that iconic chocolate taste.
There is no denying that Nesquik tastes good, but is it healthy? We wanted to take a close look at Nesquik to see what it was made from and if it's any good for you. Let's get into it:
What is Nesquik made from?
Chocolate Nesquik is actually made using very few ingredients - it's just sugar and cocoa powder along with Emulsifier and Cinnamon. We expected to see a long list of ingredients so this really surprised us.
What are the nutritional statistics of Nesquik?
We should start by saying that the general advice is to mix Nesquik with around 200ml of milk, but you could instantly make it much lower in sugar and calories by mixing it with water, although it definitely won't taste as good.
We weren't too surprised to see that sugar is the main ingredient in Nesquik, but we were quite surprised to see how high in sugar Nesquik is, with 9.3g of sugar per serving (9g). 1 serving of Nesquik also contains 34 calories, so if you're adding it to milk, particularly whole milk, then you're creating a pretty high calorie drink. We assumed that mixing Nesquik with milk would make for a lower calorie drink compared to pre-made chocolate milk, but we were wrong - Nesquik with semi-skimmed milk contains 3 more calories per 200ml compared to the Tesco Chocolate Flavoured Milk.
We were quite pleasantly surprised to see that Nesquik chocolate contains virtually no salt, with just 0.04g of salt per serving. It's also very low in fat with just 0.2g of fat per serving.
We should also mention that Nesquik is fortified with vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin C, D, and calcium.
Anything else to mention?
We were very impressed to see that Chocolate Nesquik contains absolutely no added colours, artificial flavours, sweeteners, or preservatives, because it has a really rich chocolatey taste. It's also impressive that the cocoa used to make Nesquik is Rainforest Alliance certified.
What about Strawberry Nesquik?
Chocolate Nesquik is by far the most popular flavour of this milk powder, but the strawberry flavour of Nesquik is also quite popular. The strawberry flavour is actually very similar in terms of nutritional statistics to the chocolate flavour, but we were actually quite surprised to see that it contains 1 calorie more per serving compared to Chocolate Nesquik, and 0.6g of sugar more per serving, which is quite a significant difference.
So, is Nesquik healthy?
So in conclusion, we'd say that Nesquik chocolate is definitely healthier than we expected it to be - it's fortified with vitamins and minerals and contains absolutely nothing artificial. However, it does also use sugar as the main ingredient, and it adds an extra 34 calories to any cup of milk that you add 1 serving to. You're also better going for Chocolate Nesquik compared to Strawberry Nesquik, as the Chocolate variety is lower in calories and sugar.
Let us know what you think of our guide and if you have any thoughts about how healthy Nesquik is. We have a similar guide about how healthy Coco Pops are.
Finn H
Finn is the editor of You Well and has been writing about travel, health, and more for over 10 years.