Chocolate! Most of us love it! It can be something to eat on a daily basis while maintaining a healthy body weight, keeping illness and diseases at bay, and feeding the body and mind with a balanced and nutritional diet of food, drink, snacks, and desserts.
Chocolate comes in a multitude of forms and knowing the differences is a key step to having both a happy and healthy relationship with chocolate.
Chocolate is derived from cacao, which is a seed of the cacao tree, which grows in tropical regions along the Earth’s equator. These seeds, also considered beans, are found in pods and require a lot of processing before they are edible. Then they are ground into powder, converted into butter, or distilled into liquor, and these “pure” forms of cacao form the basis of most of our chocolate-derived foods. Sometimes the tree and the raw edible cacao are called “cocoa” also.
The good new is that cacao has many healthy nutrients as well as a natural stimulant, theobromine, which is similar to caffeine. As for nutrients, cacao contains flavonols, which are anti-oxidants. The most important flavonol in cacao is epicatechin (Johns Hopkins Medicine), and this nutrient can help you improve your heart health and immune system. In addition, epicatechin has been shown to help combat diabetes, improve brain function, boost athletic performance, and reduce1. To gain these benefits, however, a person must consume a sufficient amount of flavonols, and not all chocolate desserts have enough. One rule of thumb is to eat chocolate that is at least 70% cacao by weight. This means, usually, that you must eat dark chocolate to (and not too much, but enough) to realize some health benefits.
On the other hand, because cacao alone is not that delicious, many additional food items are blended with it to make chocolate desserts. These additions are typically oil; dairy products such as cream, butter, or milk; and – most importantly of all—sugar. Quite simply, many chocolate desserts, treats, and snacks are heavily loaded with sugar. They may also have fruits and nuts, in addition to the dairy additives and oils, flour, and eggs. As a result, the actual cacao content is a small fraction of the overall food item. The “chocolate” food is mostly sugar, dairy products, and other “extras” that overshadow the healthy aspect of the cacao and create a frown food, which should be replaced with a chocolate dessert that is both yummy and good for you, in moderation. This is the reason that most health experts and medical associations recommend eating dark chocolate that is at least 70% cacao. Aside from that, all other chocolate-based treats are unlikely to provide any nutritional benefit and should be eaten wisely for the joy and happiness that a sweet dessert brings as part of a balanced diet.
To summarize a bit of the analysis above, below is a comparison of two Smile Food System health ratings of two chocolate desserts: Turkey Hill Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream and dark chocolate squares from Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa Bar, using 190 calories of each item so the comparison is of equivalent caloric portion. For the ice cream, the serving size is 87 grams for 190 calories, and for the Lindt, the service size is 30 grams for 190 calories. The Lindt is much more caloric-dense than the ice cream.
Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa Bar
Turkey Hill Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream
The advantages of the ice cream are that you can eat a larger portion size, relative to the dark chocolate, and still only consume 190 calories, and you will also consume slightly more protein (3 vs. 2 grams). The advantages of the dark chocolate are the nutrients in the cacao, which is the most prominent ingredient and the lower sugar relative to the ice cream. More of the calories come from fat (14 grams) with the dark chocolate than with the ice cream (9 grams), but, fortunately, both contain 0 trans fats. While the dark chocolate has only 5 ingredients, with chocolate as the highest percentage, the ice cream has 11, and it contains more milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and nonfat milk than cocoa.
Comparing Chocolate to Other Desserts, Sweets, Treats, and Fruits
When you feel like something sweet, you definitely want to find an item that you enjoy. This should taste wonderful to you, so you can revel in the experience on many sensory levels: smell, taste, touch (texture), and vision (enjoying the colors and shapes). Some people even attend to the sounds to be perceived when eating some foods (crunch of chewing caramel popcorn or the crack of breaking apart a chocolate bar). While there are endless desserts, chocolate, specifically dark chocolate, is generally healthier than other options. Let’s look at how chocolate stacks up to a couple other desserts and sweet treats.
Dark chocolate bar compared to chocolate chip cookies
While a warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie always tastes good, they provide no nutritional benefits, which can be okay from time to time! Indulging in cookies everyday can lead to detrimental health effects, such as type 2 diabetes, but people may prefer the warmth and comfort that is associated with a cookie and so will eat them despite these risks. As a dark chocolate bar can also melt in the mouth, consider swapping dark chocolate for the cookie every so often. You will still curb those chocolate and sweet cravings but will be consuming less sugar in the process.
Dark chocolate bar compared to gummy bears
Some people opt for the chocolaty option when picking a dessert, while others opt for the chewy, fruity, or gummy option. Gummy bears are a popular choice for the latter but be careful! Many gummy bears are loaded with sugar and the sugar-free options have been linked to gut and stomach issues, including bloating, flatulence, and loose stools due to the presence of lycasin (a sugar alcohol). Additionally, some of the appeal of gummy bears (and other gummy sweets) are their shape and colors. To provide colorful options, gummy producers use artificial dyes and food coloring. However, artificial dyes and food coloring are linked to increased risk of cancer and behavioral problems in children.2 Red 3, a popular artificial dye, is listed as a carcinogen by the FDA, while Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, other widely used dyes, may be contaminated with other carcinogens. Most chocolate is free of lycasin, artificial dye, and food coloring. Therefore, skip the gummies, fruit snacks and other colorful sweets and opt for chocolate instead.
Comparing white, milk, and dark chocolate
When people think of chocolate, they generally think of three different kinds: white, milk, and dark. These three chocolates vary in their ingredients and health benefits. White chocolate, not even considered a chocolate until 2002, contains cacao butter as its cacao derivative, while milk and dark chocolate contain cacao butter and cacao liquor also. In addition to cacao butter, white chocolate also contains sugar, milk, soy lecithin (an emulsifier used to stabilize processed foods), and other artificial flavors. According to the FDA, white chocolate must contain at least 20% cacao butter, 14% milk solids, and 3.5% milkfat to be considered chocolate.3 Milk chocolate is made up of cacao liquor, cacao butter, milk, and sugar. The FDA requires that milk chocolate contain at least 10% cacao liquor, 3.39% milkfat, and 12% milk solids.3 Lastly, dark chocolate contains cacao liquor, cacao butter, and sugar, but it must have at least 50% cacao to be considered dark chocolate. As mentioned above, 70% cacao by weight is the threshold to receive the most health benefits from dark chocolate, so you might aim for that number when eating chocolate!
Unlike dark chocolate, white and milk chocolate offer no nutritional benefits. To better analyze these three types of chocolates, let’s compare them using the Smile system.
Fiber-Sugar-protein ratios:
White chocolate 1-23-3
Milk chocolate 1-22-4
Dark chocolate 3-12-3
Another comparison is looking at Lindt chocolate bars and their other nutritional information. A Lindt White Chocolate Classic Recipe bar suggests 42g (10 squares) as a serving size. Within this, there are 230 calories, 130 calories from fat, 15g total fat (23% daily value), 9g saturated fat (45% daily value), 10mg cholesterol (3% daily value), and 45mg sodium (2% daily value). A Lindt Milk Chocolate Classic Recipe bar suggests the same serving size of 42g (10 squares), which contains 230 calories, 120 calories from fat, 13g total fat (20% daily value), 8g saturated fat (40% daily value), 10mg cholesterol (3% daily value), and 60mg sodium (3% daily value). A Lindt 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate EXCELLENCE bar, with a serving size of 40g (3 squares), contains 250 calories, 170 calories from fat, 19g total fat (29% daily value), 12g saturated fat (60% daily value), 0mg cholesterol (0% daily value), and 10mg sodium (0% daily value). From this, we can see that with relatively similar serving sizes, the dark chocolate contains the most total and saturated fat, followed by the white chocolate and lastly the milk chocolate. However, the dark chocolate contains the least cholesterol and sodium, while the white and milk chocolates contain higher proportions of each.
Be careful when you are choosing your chocolate! Dark chocolate can provide health benefits if eaten in the right amount and with the right ingredients, so make sure to check the label.
References
- The Benefits of Having a Healthy Relationship with Chocolate. Published January 18, 2022. Accessed May 31, 2022. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-benefits-of-having-a-healthy-relationship-with-chocolate
- Potera C. DIET AND NUTRITION: The Artificial Food Dye Blues. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2010;118(10):A428. doi:10.1289/ehp.118-a428
- 21 CFR Part 163 — Cacao Products. Accessed June 6, 2022. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-163