It comes in all sorts of varieties but is chocolate good for you? Could life really be that good?
The main difference between the various sorts of chocolate if the amount of milk and the percentage of cocoa. Culture and marketing tends to determine that, and this is the thing that swings the health benefits.
The Dark Stuff
The evidence is pretty good that chocolate with 70% and above cocoa content is good for your health.
Dark chocolate contains a lot of compounds knows as flavanoids. These are also found in things like nut, olives, and berries.
Flavanoids are great antioxidants and anti-inflammatory too.
Dark chocolate has beneficial effects on blood pressure, and consequently on the heart as well.
Also the friendly bacteria in your gut (the ones that help your health) respond well to dark chocolate, whereas the bugs that are bad for your health don’t.
So the news is excellent for dark chocolate! But in the UK most people eat the other kind, what about that?
Milk Chocolate
What if you prefer the fatty sweet stuff like Cadbury’s? This has only 26% cocoa and also has cocoa butter (saturated fat), cow’s milk, and sugar.
All milk chocolate contains the same type of cocoa as dark chocolate, but to get the benefit of it you have to eat at least three times as much. In the process you’ll get fat and maybe lose some teeth too.
A few decades ago food company scientists found that combining a lot of fat and sugar together can produce near addictive qualities. When you add cocoa into the mix you have something almost irresistible to a lot of people. This is no accident, you are being manipulated for profit.
Most confectioneries deliberately use this formula to get you hooked and to buy more, making more profits for them.
Is Chocolate Good For You?
Dark chocolate is, and you get more benefit by eating it regularly. Count me in!
Milk chocolate is addictive (to some), fattening, and teeth rotting. The unhealthy aspects of milk chocolate heavily outweigh the good.
A few years ago I trained myself to like dark chocolate, and now I love it – I mean I really love it! I wouldn’t give you a thank you for the fatty sweet stuff these days, but I did used to like it very much.
Chocolate addiction is a real thing, milk chocolate is deliberately made to be addictive. Parents do their best to protect their kids from coming into contact with addictive drugs, but unwittingly give them milk chocolate.
Chocolate addiction is one of the mind-blocks that hold people back in getting healthier, and one of the common addictions my coaching clients conquer on their route to health.
Personal Coaching with Dr Julie Coffey
It really is worth training your taste buds to enjoy dark chocolate.
Have a great week!
Dr Julie
On second thoughts I think I should have included dark chocolate on this:
The Daily Checklist For Losing Weight
Feel free to add it in!
So how do you train yourself to like dark chocolate?! I love Cadburys Dairy Milk but have tried to eat dark chocolate on occasions in the past, but always return to the bad stuff!
Hi Martin. This is how I did it:
1. Really wanted to like the dark stuff, even though I didn’t at the time
2. Always had the dark choc in, and did not buy the milk choc for a bit (otherwise I would have just eaten that instead)
3. Most evenings had a little bit, and more and more I started to like it.
These days I find milk chocolate far to sweet to properly enjoy. If you coffee or alcohol – think back to being a kid. Chances are you didn’t like either, but you may do now because you taught yourself to acquire the taste. You can do the same with dark chocolate if you want too, but you’ll need to keep the milk choc out of reach while you do.
Hi Julie- what are your views on raw chocolate such as Ombar- I love their ‘milk’ bar which is sweetened by coconut milk (and 100% raw and vegan).
I find it more palatable than dark chocolate and don’t need to eat as much as the sweet stuff- but is it better than Dairy Milk etc?
I’ve not tried it. I just looked it up though. The first ingredient (i.e. tht largest ingredient) of the milk version is coconut sugar. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a healthy alternative – it’s not!