Buying Guide: What to Look for When Choosing a High-Quality Dark Chocolate
Chocolate has many health benefits with many studies claiming that it helps in polyphenols and antioxidants. This is particularly true of dark chocolate as it has higher cocoa seeds concentration than the milk chocolate, and here lies the secret to promoting your health.
However, some people claim that they have trouble purchasing high quality chocolate bars. This article will explain the things that you should look for when shopping for the best chocolate bars.
No hidden Ingredients
While some chocolate may contain sugar to enhance its taste appeal. it is important to select chocolates which have the minimal amount of sugar in order to maximise its health benefits,
First look at the ingredients labels for your chocolate to ensure that it does not include a lot of sugar. Some companies use hydrogenated oils to reduce chocolate costs. However using such oils ruins the chocolate’s benefits, disrupting the right chocolaty flavor.
Indeed, the best chocolate should not have vegetable oils as part of the ingredients. It is recommended to select chocolate that minimal added ingredients including artificial flavorings and other oils.
The Percentage of Cocoa
You should always look at the percentage of cocoa included in chocolate. This varies between 60-80 percent with Dark chocolate having approximately 60 percent of cocoa. The general rule of thumb should always be a higher percentage of cocoa, as this equals the higher health benefits.
Higher cocoa percentage also means that your chocolate will not be sweet naturally compared to other cocoa chocolate with a lot of added flavorings. You should choose the chocolate that has high cocoa percent if you want to get high flavonoids from chocolate (antioxidants in chocolate).
Fairtrade and Organic
Even though Fair Trade does not have a direct effect on the number of health benefits you can get from the chocolate, selecting Fair Trade entails means promoting fair wages for farmers of chocolate and enhancing transparency for effective practices of cocoa growing.
Also organic foods never use the synthetic chemicals, and some can have higher antioxidant values. If you are confused about finding out whether the companies are Fair Trade or not, you should check the Fairtrade USA. Researchers have claimed that organic farming enhances biodiversity and reduces the use of the pesticide on the land. If such concerns are your personal health, you could benefit from purchasing chocolate.
Minimum Processing
This step is critical as processing involves the removal of many antioxidants and flavonoids. The overly processed chocolates will advertise this. When purchasing the chocolate bar, you should look for the price. Highly processed chocolates will be inexpensive since they use inferior ingredients such as the hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Incorporating such ingredients into chocolate needs a lot of processing. The manufacturers will have to remove cocoa butter before replacing it with a less expensive substitute.
In summary, chocolate has many health benefits. There are numerous chocolate types available on the market, but many of them are of poor quality. Before buying, ensure that you do background study including reading the ingredients of the chocolate bar or studying reviews online in order to find a product that matches the right criteria.
