I love chocolate

black chocolate

Although chocolate is delicious, it’s not always nutritious — or even real chocolate at all. White chocolate, for example, doesn’t contain cocoa solids. That means it’s much more of a confection than anything else. But dark chocolate benefits are numerous, as dietitian Devon Peart, MHSc, BASc, RD, explains. Is dark chocolate healthy? When compared with other kinds of chocolate, dark chocolate stands tall. “Dark chocolate has lower added sugar and fat than milk or white chocolate,” says Peart, while noting it also boasts an abundance of beneficial antioxidants called flavonoids. At their core, milk chocolate and dark chocolate have similar ingredients, including cocoa butter, sugar and cocoa solids. The two kinds of chocolate differ in their percentage of cocoa solids, however. “Dark chocolate has between 50% and 90% cocoa solids,” says Peart. “And milk chocolate has between 10% and 50%.” Unsurprisingly, the percentage of cocoa solids can affect the magnitude of dark chocolate’s benefits. “The higher percentage of cocoa solids, the more flavonoids and the lower sugar,” Peart explains. “If you’re doing 75% or 80% dark chocolate, there’ll be less added sugar than if you were at 50% dark chocolate.” In addition to being lower in sugar, here are other dark chocolate benefits: Rich in flavanols Flavanols are a type of flavonoid that’s found in plants such as the cacao tree. These trees produce the cacao beans used to make chocolate. “Flavanols are abundant in cacao beans,” says Peart. “The cacao beans are fermented and roasted, producing what we call cocoa beans.
learn more on health.clevelandclinic.org