Healthy dark chocolate

Some of you may be surprised to read the statement ‘Healthy Dark Chocolate’ and would never have thought that eating chocolate is good for you, whilst others may have already discovered the health benefits of dark chocolate in recent years and be reading this in conjunction with buying some of our high cocoa chocolate bars online.

• So to be absolutely clear about this and to avoid any media style hype and general misinformation in favour of a stronger headline, these are the facts about healthy chocolate.
• Cocoa is the beneficial ingredient within chocolate and so the higher the cocoa content, indicated by a percentage, the more beneficial to your health it is going to be and the less sugar, as way of percentage of course, is therefore included .
  
• Cocoa contains flavonoids and powerful antioxidants.
• High cocoa dark chocolate has been scientifically found to benefit the cardiovascular system and lower blood pressure.
• Milk chocolate contains very little cocoa and is mostly made up of sugar and milk so only dark chocolate would contain any real health benefit. As dark chocolate can range from 50% to 100%* the definition of healthy dark chocolate still requires a little more refinement and so the top end of dark chocolate really around 70% cocoa content and above would be the cocoa percentage to aim for.
• *100% dark chocolate technically isn’t chocolate….this is because chocolate is the name given to cocoa mixed with sugar and so no sugar, its not chocolate. Everyone refers to it as chocolate however and so to avoid confusion we call it chocolate.

The question really is how bitter can you go? Do you like really bitter dark chocolate? What does 100% dark chocolate, without any sugar, actually taste like? Well, we would say as a general rule of thumb that for most tastes, 70% dark chocolate is the point at which a bittersweet dark chocolate becomes just bitter. Over 70% and you really are going to already know you prefer bitter tastes and don’t posses a sweet tooth at all. If you are brave and go for the 100% dark chocolate be warned, its not at all like chocolate as you probably know it and as you do now know, isn’t actually chocolate.

Another misconception about chocolate is that if you are a diabetic you can’t eat chocolate as it is bad for you. This again is not necessarily true and for the exact same reasons and definitions given above.

We are gladly not scientists or doctors and whilst we are fully aware of the many scientific studies undertaken and reports made we do have to say with any sensibility that everything should be taken in moderation and certainly not to replace your five a day with a bar of chocolate! Many of our customers order a few dark chocolate bars in one delivery and have a small piece every day or similar.

Buy healthy dark chocolate online