The next important topic to discuss in terms of healthy chocolate is sugar and other sweeteners. I mentioned on another page that cacao is extremely healthy, and since chocolate is made from it, this is why chocolate has so many health benefits as well. However, the more processed the cacao is, the more we're getting away from its initial, nutritional value.
So makers of dark chocolate are touting all the health benefits because of the cacao, but then they go and add something that's diametrically opposed to good health: refined sugar. (Or corn syrup, or other artificial sweeteners. Actually, when artificial sweeteners are added, the FDA no longer considers the product true chocolate.)
Now granted, I prefer sugar to anything artificial. I won't write an article on artificial sweeteners here, but I basically think they're evil. The list of negative side effects numbers just about as long as parts of the body.
But sugar's list of side effects is nearly as long. When you include refined sugar in chocolate, the health benefits may outweigh the problems of sugar, but the problems are still there.
If you look at most of the chocolates on the market today, compare the sugar content with the weight of the entire piece of chocolate. What I've seen is that sugar ends up being 25-50% of the product! The truth is, we like chocolate because it's sweet. But when this is refined sugar, this is a high percentage. You need to be careful about how much you're eating.
To really get the health benefits of cacao and NOT dampen them with refined sugar or artificial sweeterns, I believe it's important to use sweeteners like xylitol, stevia, or agave nectar, or even unrefined (and lower-glycemic) sugars like raw cane juice.
XYLITOL
Xylitol not only sweetens food, but it actually provides many health BENEFITS. As health writer Natalie Aranda puts it:
Research conducted in more than 40 countries around the world has shown that Xylitol contributes to weight loss, increased bone density, hormonal imbalance restoring, and blood sugar stabilization for diabetic patients, lowering their insulin levels.
It is also widely noted for its oral health benefits, as xylitol has an anti-bacterial quality that can kill the bacteria on teeth (and presumably elsewhere in the body), and it lowers the body's acid levels, while sugar raises acid in the body. (Acidity causes a wide range of problems.)
Having said that, many companies still avoid xylitol because it has a unique flavor that most people need to get used to. It certainly puts a different spin on chocolate. Also, some people have digestive issues when eating sugar alcohols.
AGAVE NECTAR
One of my favorite raw chocolates -- Gnosis Chocolate -- is sweetened with agave nectar, which is low on the glycemic index and in my opinion is a healthier choice than sugar. I understand there is a lot of controversy around this because of an article written by Dr. Mercola. But even Mercola notes that there's a difference between raw, organic agave and that which is highly processed.
If it's raw, then it's similar to eating some fruit, which I believe is different than eating processed sugar. A whole bar of Gnosis Chocolate only contains somewhere around 10 grams of fructose (I don't know the exact amount); Mercola says that 25 grams is the metabolic danger zone. Most people I know don't eat a whole bar of Gnosis at one sitting, and might get more like 2-3 grams per serving.
For more on this topic, you might like to read the agave report written by Vanessa of Gnosis Chocolate. After Mercola's article came out and stirred up so much controversy, she went down to her Mexican source for raw, organic agave and observed the entire process, learning how different this is from the processing of high fructose corn syrup for instance.
Obviously there will be ongoing debates about this, as with anything. But I think it's clear that we're talking about something different, here, than what Mercola took issue with.
TYPES OF SUGAR
Having said all this, there are different TYPES Of sugar, and some spike blood sugar more than others (which means that they have a higher glycemic index rating). Xocai and ChocoNat use fructose (raw cane juice) rather than sucrose as their sugar, these have about 1/3 the glycemic load of refined sugar.
By now, if you've read through all "The Facts" pages in order, you've covered most of what you need to know when picking out a healthy chocolate. But there are still a couple useful things you can look into, and one of them is how chocolate is made -- knowing this will help you to understand the quality of chocolate you're getting. So let's take a look at the parts of chocolate.
