The Truth About Dark Chocolate, Dutch Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate and the Healthiest Chocolate!
Dark Chocolate – The Good Stuff
Dark chocolate contains the three elements of cocoa liquor or cocoa mass (cocoa cake), cocoa butter, and sugar. A bittersweet dark chocolate bar contains about 70% chocolate liquor*; while a semisweet dark chocolate contains about 60%. A dark chocolate can be “bittersweet” or “semisweet” or “sweetened”, depending on how much sugar is added to the cocoa powder and cocoa butter.Next to raw and unprocessed organic cocoa,organic dark chocolate is the healthiest form of chocolate – especially when it contains more of the nutritious cocoa mass and less of the fattening cocoa butter and sugar. The dark chocolate is “healthier” when it is unsweetened or bittersweet dark chocolate. Any sweetened dark chocolate is a little less”healthy” when it is sweetened with refined white sugar (sucrose) instead of raw cane sugar or dehydrated cane juice. (*Note: that this chocolate or cocoa “liquor” does NOT refer to alcohol, but is a term used by cocoa processors to describe the viscous liquid made from roasted cacao beans.)
Milk Chocolate
Milk chocolate contains the same ingredients of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and sugar as dark chocolate, but to these three are added milk solids and milk fats. Milk chocolate will typically contain about 20% milk fat – which does not make milk chocolate a “healthy” chocolate choice. Aside from adding extra fat, dairy products also inhibit the body’s absorption of the powerful antioxidants naturally found in raw cocoa and dark chocolate.
Dutch Chocolate
Cocoa powder usually has a slightly bitter and acidic taste. In the 19th century Dutch chocolate makers learned that they could treat the cocoa powder with alkaline salts to reduce the bitter taste – a process now known as the “Dutching process”. Dutch cocoa provides less antioxidants than natural cocoa because the alkali process destroys some of the flavanols (the powerful antioxidants found in cocoa). You can tell a cocoa or chocolate is Dutch Chocolate when the label indicates “Dutch process” or “alkali added” or “European style”.
White Chocolate
Remember, so-called “white chocolate” is not really a “chocolate” – and certainly not a “healthy chocolate”. It is “white” because it does NOT contain any of the dark brown cocoa powder found in dark chocolate and milk chocolate, and provides none of the healthy nutrients. White chocolate should be considered a high-sugar and high-fat candy – not a health food. And it does not really deserve the name of “chocolate” at all. It doesn’t even taste like cocoa or chocolate! “Cocoa butter candy” would be a more accurate name than”white chocolate”. Since it does NOT contain real cocoa beans and the many healthy nutrients which are naturally present in the cocoa beans, and since it has a high content of fats from both cocoa butter and milk fat, white chocolate is by far the LEAST healthy choice among the three common types of manufactured chocolate.
The Bottom Line Is: Dark Chocolate is a Great Source of Resveratrol – so don’t feel so bad next time you get a chocolate craving. Just make sure you buy the right kind!
This fun report about chocolate is provided for your enjoyment courtesy of
http://Benefits-Of-Resveratrol.com
Today’s Workout
Buy In – Thrusters 5 x 3 reps
* Increase weight each set, working up to a heavy triple
WOD – This workout consists of 2 parts:
“Mini – Wallup”
- 3 rounds for time of:
- 15 wall balls (14lbs/20lbs)
- 10 pullups
Zone 2 – scale wall balls to 10lbs/14lbs, scale to assisted pullups
Zone 1 – scale as needed
Then:
“Heels Overhead”
- 5 rounds for time”
- 5 Handstand Pushups
- 10 Toes to bar
Zone 3 – scale to 1 ab mat
Zone 2 – scale HSPU as needed, scale toes to bar to hanging leg raises
Zone 1 – scale as needed
* Score both workouts separately *
Cash Out – MWOD – 5 way shoulder stretch with rubber band
