A close friend first introduced me to healthy chocolate. I inherited my Mother's sweet tooth and the thought of being able to eat chocolate guilt free certainly intrigued me. I had heard on the news that dark chocolate had some health benefits, but I really had no concept of the magnitude at that time. Since then I have learned that the chocolate I buy in the store is processed, so most of the antioxidants and nutrients are lost. And to confuse the matter, the chocolate manufacturer's are trying to ride on the curtails of the media medical reports by changing their packaging without changing the contents. So even if the package wrapper says it is "70% or 80% cacao", "organic", or any other buzz term, it doesn't matter if the product is processed. Processing, dutching, roasting, alkalizing destroys most of the antioxidants. The second ingredient will usually be sugar. Even if it is "organic sugar", "organic cane sugar" it still is processed sugar, which is killing us.
Because they get more money by selling off different components of the cocoa bean, many of the commerical manufacturer's sell off the cocoa butter to the cosmetic companies because they get more money. Then you have unhealthy fats added back in place of the heart-healthy cocoa butter. Add to that the preservatives, waxes, fillers and added caffeine. And to make matters worse, they actually add food coloring to make the chocolate appear darker. If you don't care and just want candy, that is fine. But if you are looking for the health benefits, you have to learn to read through the hype. Look for a chocolate that has been certified as to its flavonoid content and has no processed sugars, added fats, preservatives, waxes, fillers or caffeine. Recent studies on cacao have concluded that best results were obtained by consuming 600-900mg of Total Flavanoids, plant-based antioxidants that help the body's cells resist damage by free radicals. So you have to be careful and balance the total number of flavanoids with the total sugars and fat. In order to get this high flavanoid count, the cocoa beans need to be non-roasted, non-alkalized, non-dutched, non-processed and cooked at a very low temperature.
My goal with this blog is to enlighten my fellow consumers so you can make more intelligent decisions as to what you are putting into your body. So I will attempt to cut through the hype and bring you insightful information on the many benefits of dark chocolate.
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