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It’s common knowledge that one of the reasons I decided to study nutrition is because I’m a food addict! In recent years my taste buds have changed and my biggest temptation is normally cheese, but I am still partial to a bit of chocolaty goodness!
 
For those of you who have sat down and talked to me about your sweet tooth, you will probably have heard me say, “Have a few squares of good quality dark chocolate and really enjoy every mouthful!” But with so much to chose from, what really is the difference between all the brands and varieties out there?
 
So hoping I wouldn’t bump into any clients, I went on a little shopping trip. I wanted to find out what the differences were first hand! Of course I saw half a dozen clients and had to explain that the chocolate in my hand was actually ‘research’!
 
I wanted to see the differences between a typical household chocolate like Galaxy, a higher quality Green & Blacks Chocolate, and Carob, a chocolate substitute.
 
The first thing I noticed was the amount of ingredients in each, with Galaxy chocolate having twice as many ingredients as Green & Blacks and Carob. With everything we eat, we want to keep the ingredients as natural as possible to avoid creating free radicals in the body.
 
Although Carob might not be to everybody’s taste, it has by far the lowest amount of sugars and the highest amount of protein, so if this does work for you then it’s definitely the best option. 100g of Carob has 17g of sugar versus Galaxy which has 55.4g. But if Carob evokes the same response as I got from Charlie – “That’s foul!” – Then maybe Green & Blacks could be a better compromise.
 
As I talk so much about dark chocolate I wanted to compare it to milk so I bought both – much to everyone’s mock distress! The milk chocolate version of Green & Blacks came in at a whopping 45g of sugar per 100g (still not as bad as Galaxy) but the dark chocolate variety has only 28g. As well as this the dark chocolate has substantially more fibre in it also.
 
In short, it’s no surprise that the chocolate substitute is the healthiest option. However I still stand by my guns – a little bit of dark chocolate now and then has the best properties and six small squares of Green & Blacks will only provide you with about 6g of sugar – and you will get 2g of fibre and the same amount of protein in there too!
 
Don’t forget to come along to the next Nutrition Meeting on Tuesday 17th Feb to find out lots more about sugar and why we should have less of it!

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