Will more sugar make chocolate healthier?

August 14 2012 by in Crazy ways to lose weight, Sugar/fructose

Here’s the silliest thing I heard today. Scientists are experimenting with a new “healthy” chocolate where fat is replaced with even more sugar. Great news, right?

Good news for chocaholics: Scientists replace fat with FRUIT JUICE to create healthy chocolate bars

What kind of chocolate (if any) do you eat?

More diet scams

45 comments

Top comment

MargaretRC
August 14 2012 9
I guess they didn't get Dr. Lustig's memo on fruit juice. Give me full fat, low sugar dark chocolate any day. Unless I want to get to sleep at night. Then I have to skip it.

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1
MarieDK
August 14 2012 2
As we say in Denmark: Even the Gods fight against stupidity, is in vain.
2
MargaretRC
August 14 2012
Utterly ridiculous!
3
MargaretRC
August 14 2012 9
I guess they didn't get Dr. Lustig's memo on fruit juice. Give me full fat, low sugar dark chocolate any day. Unless I want to get to sleep at night. Then I have to skip it.
4
moreporkplease
August 14 2012
91% dark by l'Amourette - very tasty and sold in large bars: http://www.lamourettechocolat.com/bars/91-cacao-extra-smooth.html
5
Nana
August 14 2012 1
As MarieDK tried to say: "Against stupidity, even the gods fight in vain" :P
6
Tia
August 14 2012 2
The chemists will be very proud finally replacing the fruit juice by water and ascorbic acid!
Yuck! Welcome to Frankenfoodworld!
7
LyndaF
August 15 2012
I eat Lindt Excellence 99% cocoa. I now find even the 90% cocoa bar too sweet & addictive! I have also been experimenting with making treats from coconut oil, coconut,& cocoa.
8
Brad Midgley
August 15 2012 1
Stevia 98% sold through amazon, or 90% Lindt. Any less cocoa and there's too much room to be filled with sugar...
9
Jane
August 15 2012
In Australia we have a brand called 'well naturally' that is sweetened with Stevia and just has cocoa and cocoa butter, nothing else. The orange essense and almond and peppermint flavours are yummm and it cooks really well in sugar free desserts.
10
Rae
August 15 2012 3
I like 85% or better, but I have been known to munch on 100% - if the quality is good. I like it plain or sometimes broken into chunks and eaten with heavy cream and berries!
11
Tia
August 15 2012
My current favourite is Feodora Espresso 75%, only made of cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, coffee, Bourbon vanilla, else nothing else. Another is 77 % Cocoa d´Arriba Classic, no soy lecithin. Yummy! :D
12
Eleanor
August 15 2012 3
We eat Lindt 85% and 90%. Our kids eat 70%, Sea Salt, Chili Pepper, and Orange Intense.

We love it (i.e. "cut it") with some mascarpone, poured whipping cream, coconut oil, and a crushed pecan. Super yum!
13
Diane
August 15 2012 1
I have found some really good chocolate from South America. Various brands. I just read the label and look for super dark chocolate without lecithin. Those chocolates seem to be very very tasty. Lindt 87% (which does have lecithin) is tasty, too.
14
Trina
August 15 2012
I eat Cote D'Or 86% and my kids eat 70%. I actually make most of my own now with unsweetened chocolate, coconut oil/ghee, stevia and or erythritol. I add nuts/coconut/natural extracts. I prefer the homemade ones (my kids love them too).
15
BA
August 15 2012 3
Actually I think both sides are out of their minds on this issue. Something like chocolate should be something that you optionally might consume in very small quantities infrequently as a treat. As such, the priority should be whether or not the chocolate is something that you enjoy. Getting caught up in the minutiae of the food quality of a chocolate (from either the LC or the mainstream perspective) completely misses the boat in the sense that this food is not a ideally staple component of any diet.

Reply: #42
16
Bill
August 15 2012
It’s cocoa butter, not trans fats. And they replace it with what, high fructose corn syrup? Regular dark chocolate is good for the gut bacteria too (http://caloriesproper.com/?p=1583); I wonder if the added sugar will negate those benefits (?).
17
Will
August 15 2012 1
lindt 99%... which has only 1g of sugar per bar...
18
Sietske
August 15 2012
In the Netherlands we have a new brand, Lovechock, and they make raw chocolate to preserve the antioxidants and other chemicals. That is to say, the cacao is grinded below 49 degrees Celcius. It is sweetened with dried coconut-blossom nectar, which is said to have less effect on blood sugar. It doesn't contain grains, milk or gluten. It's made from cacao from Equador, handmade with organic ingredients! We eat only the Pure/Nibs bar, the other variants are too sweet to our taste. It's still only 82% but it tastes less sweet and more pure and delicious then Cote d'Or 86%. Though I still have to test the claim about the coconut-blossom nectar and blood sugar, we really love this chocolate! I'd rather eat a small amount of a natural sweetener than a bigger amount of a chemical sweetener anyway! We eat one piece once or twice in the weekends only. It's a great chocolate, but very expensive! But the chocolate is so tasty and satisfying that one piece once in a while is really enough. (33 grams carbs per 100 grams chocolate, of which 11 grams are sugars. One piece is 10 gram. Cote d'Or 86% has 13 gram sugar per 100 gram) Dutch website about the chocolate: http://www.lovechock.com and no, I don't get commissions, I don't sell it, I'm just very enthusiastic about it :-)
19
oliviascotland
August 15 2012
I like the Lindt 90% - one square every couple of weeks keeps my chocolate cravings under control!
20
Megan
August 15 2012 3
The scientists behind this idea answered some of the many critics which had left comments on the Daily Mail article (I was one of them and thankfully 95% of comments pointed out that fat is healthier than sugar!). The scientists pointed out that it was the ascorbic acid in the fruit which allowed them to make the chocolate still have the right mouth feel and taste. therefore they could achieve the same effect with just water and vitamin C.

The scientist from the University of Warwick (I believe) said that it was a win win situation because you could have 50% less fat and the same amount of sugar as normal.

I am afraid to say that this still didn't occur to me to be a fantastic idea. Lets take out the only healthy thing in a chocolate bar and replace it with water (oh, and charge more for it because it is now healthier).

The world really has gone mad. Now they tell us that egg yolks are as bad as smoking...
21
Laura
August 15 2012
@Sietske..I happened to be in Amsterdam in May and I stumbled on the Lovechock products...they are AMAZING (MY favourite was the one with nibs)! Once you try them almost no other chocolate will do.....not for the faintheated though..as it is very strong but so full of flavour...cannot recall what they sweeten it with though...
I ahve been hunting for them ever since and I see they have not come to UK yet! damn... ;-)
22
Sietske
August 15 2012 1
@Laura: As far as I can find out Lovechock is only available in The Netherlands, even their website is in Dutch only. It is a small starting company. There are some online stores who sell the chocolate, but even those are Netherlands/Belgium only! Too bad, for we will emigrate soon (to Sweden, THE country of LCHF, yes!) and this chocolate is one of the few things, if not the only thing, I'll miss very much! :-) I hope the company grows soon, so the chocolate will be wider available. Hell, maybe I'll start an import/export-company myself...
23
Anne
August 15 2012
I take care of my chocolate cravings by mixing pure cocoa into hot water and sweeten with stevia. I have found this does not increase my blood sugar.
24
Daniel FE
August 15 2012
off topic , can some one tell me how stevia and splenda work? do they just increase your insulin, with out the sugar going in to them or does insulin stay the same?
25
Laura
August 15 2012
@ Sietske...PLEASE DO! :-) (an avid customer..first in line)

@ Daniel FE...well I read several reports that artificial sweeteners do raise your insulin but then the act of eating (or simply chewing) itself does initially independently of what you injest or even the thought of food alone causes insulin secretion it is like a Pavlovian reflex...so really one cannot win!! After this initial insulin spike (A so called cerebral spike as it is determined by nervous circuitry in the brain) then subsequent insulin secretion is determined by actual blood glucose levels and therefore by teh carbs in your meal...Some of these sweeteners have a percentage of glucose in them so they can cause prolonged insulin secretion (Although much less than sucrose) but basically.... dunno.......
26
Ika
August 15 2012
@ Sietske

I'm going to Den Haag this autumn so i' m going to spread the LCHF- word from Sweden and buy some fine Lovechock-chocolate :) Thanks for the tip!
27
Margareth
August 15 2012 1
I eat 88 % cacao chocolate, has about 10% sugar, but I "dilute" the sugar - melt it and add coconut oil, a little butter and some erythritol or stevia, best chocolate ever..home made.. with my dilution I think it has about 3-5 % sugar. try not to eat that much at once..

I like Endangered Species Chocolate, Extreme Dark Chocolate 88% cacao ! You help the environment as well! ;) order it online..
28
murray
August 16 2012
Soma chocolate here in Toronto has an excellent artisan 100% chocolate called Arcana. My favorite, though, is the 100% made by Chocosol, also here in Toronto. Michael uses Mexican beans he sources directly from small family farms in Mexico he deals with personally. He uses low heat, low shear techniques and these chocolates are potent. If I have more than 20 grams on an empty stomach I get too strong a buzz. At lower doses it is a mellow, feel-good buzz, as low-processed chocolate is a potent vasodilater and the theobromine is, well, a Godly bromide. Great 100% chocolate is like drinking coffee without cream or sugar. Eventually serious coffee drinkers grow up and ditch the sugar.

I have found chocolate made from unroasted beans to be a too coarse and bitter in flavour and they give me so strong a buzz it is unpleasant. I find European chocolate makers tend to over-conch, to my taste. That said, I have had a couple of decent Italian 100% bars. Chocosol made an excellent low-conch batch for me that was more grainy and chewy in texture than smooth and snappy. It brought out the flavours in an entirely different way. Getting into 100% chocolates is like getting into fine wines.
29
catgil3
August 16 2012
I don't eat chocolate often, but sometimes will have some dark chocolate bar (little at a time) or we'll mix powdered cocoa (unsweetened) with different blends of nut or seed butter and various additions including cinnamon, mint, fruit like raspberries or juice like pomegranate or orange.. and sometimes a touch of stevia or honey or agave. Every blend is different.
30
Kelly
August 16 2012 1
I might do 99% Lindt when I get to maintenance but for a carb addict like me, it's a slippery slope.
31
Alan
August 17 2012
I like the organic pure chocolate powder from Navitas; they claim that the cacao powder is cold-pressed and milled at low temperature to protect the nutrients. It smells and tastes wonderful. I heat some almond milk in a cup and add a liberal spoon full of cacao. It is yummy even without sugar.
32
FrankG
August 17 2012 1
Just an observation but has anyone else noticed the word associations that happen around food? I think these are ripe with misunderstanding..

for example: are "fattening" or "fatty" foods necessarily made of fat? More often than not I'd say they are made of sugar and refined starches... but there's that word "fat".

I've noticed another, especially for the UK -- heard frequently in that recent docu-series "The Men Who Made Us Fat" -- and that is the use of the word "chocolates" in place of things like Mars or Snickers bars, boxes of sweet-filling chocolates and similar. Again the probable real culprit here is the sugar and refined starches... yet what ends up getting vilified is the chocolate.

Maybe these conflations are subtle and nuanced (maybe they are blatant) but once you are aware of them, maybe listen out for them.
33
Dr. Mark
August 17 2012
I eat chocolate occassionally, but people need to get off this kick about how chocolate is healthy. It isn't, no matter what you do to it. As a matter of fact, the more they do it, the more manufactured it becomes and the worse it is for you. They can add all the Vitamin C to Coke that they want, it doesn't make Coke a health drink.
34
FrankG
August 17 2012 1
No thanks for telling us what we "need" to do Mark -- still promoting your own vendor website in your avatar I see.

Coke is NOT chocolate so I don't see how your example is in any way relevant.

Please cite studies showing that chocolate is not healthy -- even if minimally processed as several above have discussed.

I'll take chocolate over any of the "products" you are peddling any day ;-)
35
FrankG
August 17 2012 3
Association Between More Frequent Chocolate Consumption and Lower Body Mass Index
Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD; Sabrina Koperski, BS; Halbert L. White, PhD

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1108800

"Chocolate has shown favorable metabolic associations with blood pressure (BP), insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol level. Chocolate is rich in antioxidant phytonutrients like catechins that could contribute to favorable relationships of chocolate consumption to insulin sensitivity and BP. ..."
36
Jan
August 17 2012 1
I usually have Green & Blacks 80% - not that it's my favourite, it's just easily available. I used to get a really tasty bar of fair-trade organic 70% chocolate, called Biona, from my health-food shop and it didn't contain any soya. But it's no longer available. I get really narked that chocolate bars contain soya. Even the classy chocs in another health shop near me all have soya. Unless you get pure cacao, which is expensive for a tiny amount - nice though. I've just looked up Lindt Excellence Noir 85% Cacao Chocolate (which someone here recommended) and it only has traces of soya lecithin, so perhaps I'll try to get that.
37
finn
August 18 2012
Ridiculous news. :) I prefer dark chocolate and sometimes also milk chocolate with nuts. I think chocolate is very healthy and I eat once a week. J.D. Gross chocolates from Germany are the best for my taste http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/testit.php?cat=25
38
Thrand Godfrey
August 20 2012
Now just when did the Trolls take over again??? they are trying to kill us all :(
39
Ed Terry
August 24 2012
After buying expensive dark chololate such as Endangered Species and Lindt, I decided to start creating my own. I started with a pound of unsweetened chocolate, add butter, coconut oil, cocoa butter, coconut flakes and/or chips, vanilla extract, cacao nibs and 1 packet of Truvia per pound of mixture. For me, it's a lot cheaper and more fun making my own.
40
Bill42
August 29 2012
Aldi do an 85% dark chocolate called Moser Roth that's quite smooth, and comes in a pack of 5 handy 25g bars.

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/product_range/product_range_18282.htm

Each 25g bar has 5g of carbs of which 4g is sugar.

And it's cheap.....
41
chanah
September 19 2012
Holy Cacao, a small chocolatier, has a line of 100 gram chocolate bars from 56%cocoa with hazelnuts up to 100%--really good Peruvian. They buy cocoa beans directly from growers and do the whole process. The chocolate is excellent and kosher. Eliminating carbs and sweets made it easier to make the transition to 100% wholly unsweetened. Just a little bit is very satisfying.

http://cargocollective.com/holycacao
42
Reply to comment #15 by BA
Marta
September 27 2012
I agree with BA.

Throughout thousands of years of human history cocoa beans were a rarity, and not a part of a human diet whatsoever.

What we're talking about here? Why should chocolate be a part of our diet?

What for? How we human would benefit of it?

Just another little less-harmless-than-other narcotic-like substance.

The more you eat it the more cravings you develop, and if you do not eat it for a long while, you are JUST FINE. JUST FINE. You stop craving it.

Your body does not need any chocolate at all (no matter how it's unsweetened and un-lecithined, which improves it slightly) -- it does not contain essential sources of essential fatty acids or proteins. And the magnesium in it can be well found in many other less harmful for liver foods.

We might have to discuss how all of us can contribute our time and effort against the companies who create and add GMO products to each and every food, including the proverbial chocolate (where soy lecithin is GMO). We eat GMO potatoes, GMO squash, tomatoes, soy, corn, GMO high-fructose corn syrup, fish, chicken, and beef fed with GMO soy and corn, we use GMO canola oil, and many other genetically altered products -- this is REALLY should be our concern when seeking health and/or normal body weight.
43
Lomac
October 16 2012
http://www.irelandsrawkitchen.ie/cacao-paste-liquor-organic-p-112.htm...

I get this 100% cacao paste. It's a block. Rock hard. No sugar. Bitter as fuck. But tasty grated (little lumps, knived) onto Greek yogurt/cream combo with a few berries. Nom.
44
Kaylen
April 17 2013
Another vote for Lindt 90% cocoa. It's particularly good melted and mixed with an equal amount of heavy cream.
45
Andrea
June 28 2013
When I can afford it - Schaffen Berger unsweetened baking chocolate. Is it a drug, uh yeah. It actually helps me kick allergy headaches and well 2 days out of 28, don't touch my chocolate.

When I can't (Because it's only sold at one shop in town and $8 a bar)

Ghiradelli 100% (not bad)

Hershey baking isn't bad either- it's got little bits of cacao nibs in it :-)

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