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Chocolate Covered
Healthy Chocolates - How Do You Tell? by Janis Ihrig
If you love chocolate as much as I do, you'll discover how to eat it everyday without feeling like you are wreaking your body and becoming addicted to it.
When I was growing up, I use to spend my "hard-earned" 25 cents allowance on these wonderful little chocolate covered malted milk balls. We had a little corner grocery store right up the street that had all sorts of candy to choose from. But... I always picked those little chocolatie covered balls.
It was a very sad day when we moved away. I did stock up though so I could have them a little longer.
Things have changed over the years, foods are processed a lot more, new chemicals have been added, and things don't go down and behave the way they did as a child. The older I got the less I could eat chocolate. I actually went for at least 30 years without chocolate. Can you imagine?
Well, something changed at the beginning of the 21st Century. I learned about raw cacao beans - the source of all chocolate candies. The closer you get to the actual raw cacao bean, the healthier your chocolate becomes. When I learned how to tell the healthy chocolate from the unhealthy chocolate, it was easy from there on out. I've been able to eat a little every day. That's really all I want.
What makes chocolate unhealthy for you?
Sugar (the refined kind) combined with cacao just doesn't equate to health. Refined sugar goes through the digestive system very fast. It is either used for energy right away or the body has to store it as fat. Because this refined sugar has no nutrients of it's own, the body's own vitamin and mineral stash are used to assist in the processing. These are the B vitamins and minerals like calcium, magnesium, chromium, and zinc.
Refined sugar is also addictive. You just don't seem to get enough once you start on sugar type foods. Chocolate has gotten the blame but take the sugar out of chocolate and you may get a different story. Chocolate can actually reduce your appetite when eaten as raw cacao beans or combined with healthy ingredients. Just be sure to use a suitable sugar replacement, not an artificial sweetener.
There are alternative sweeteners, like organic, non-bitter stevia, raw organic honey, and raw organic agave. I personally use the non-bitter stevia. I've tried the other two, but my body can't handle them any better than sugar. But you'll have to test this for yourself.
Lead and Cadmium may be in your chocolate. This one is hard to determine. Both lead and cadmium are poison. You don't need them if trying to make a healthy body. I don't eat any traditional chocolate candy. In fact I make my own from the ingredients I know don't contain lead or cadmium.
I buy only organic raw cacao ingredients, and ask the companies I buy from if any lead or cadmium shows up in the test analysis.
Shipping and manufacturing of the cacao bean contributes the largest amounts of lead and cadmium in processed chocolate.
Unhealthy Microbes work their way into the chocolate candy world at the very beginning of the processing stream. The cacao beans have been fermented for centuries to get the chocolate taste we are all familiar with. Unhealthy microbes can multiply when fermenting is not done correctly.
Mircrobes form on the skins of the raw cacao beans and raw cacao turned into candy bars or other products are the most vulnerble. The highly processed chocolate candy may contain the unhealthy microbes that can survive the high heat.
Do not eat the skins of raw cacao beans unless certified microbe free. I also check for low or no microbe count in any chocolate products or raw cacao ingredients.
Additives (the synthetic kind) are not food but are added to make the food more appealing, addicting or appetizing. Read the labels and you'll be amazed at how many words you can't even pronounce much less understand. I avoid all products that I can't make sense of the ingredients on the labels.
Healthy chocolate tips
If you want the very best, buy the healthy raw cacao ingredients and learn how to make your own treats. You'll have more control over the final outcome.
But if you want to have someone else do the work and want to enjoy peace of mind with your chocolate, buy organic for starters. You can find healthy chocolate at your local health food store (but always read the labels there as well). And call the companies that produce it and see if they know if the lead and microbe count is low.
What's considered low lead or low microbe count?
The lowest microbe count I have found is in a range of 100 to 500 Cfu/g which means Colony forming units per gram.
As for lead, I've seen a cacao beans certificate of analysis for heavy metals, naming Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic and Mercury as "ND" or None Detected. So it does exist and you can request it. The more people that ask will improve the quality of our chocolate over time.
References:
- "Sucralose A New FDA Approved Sweetener Good or Bad" by Kathryn Picoulin
- "Lead Contamination in Cocoa and Cocoa Products" Ref: Medscape Today
- "The Microbiology of Chocolate" Ref: Skyline College Edu
- "CFR - Code of Federal Regulations Title 21" Ref: Food and Drug Administration
About the Author
Janis has been studying natural healthy eating for over 30 years. She enjoys sharing what she learns in easy to understand language. You are invited to visit her Natural Healthy Eating website. You'll find lot's of specific information on healthy chocolate, by going to http://www.natural-healthy-eating.com/more-on-chocolate.html
Chocolate Covered Strawberries