Easter chocolates are on all supermarket shelves. Some people reach straight for the milk chocolate eggs while others stick to the dark variety, believing them to be healthier.
Dark chocolate has gained a reputation as the “best” choice because it usually contains more cocoa and less sugar than milk chocolate.
But is dark chocolate really healthy?
Let’s see how the evidence stacks up.
How do they compare?
All chocolate starts with the cocoa (or cacao) bean. Cocoa beans are seeds Theobroma cacao The tree is a tropical plant native to Central and South America.
Processing the beans gives you cocoa solids (the bitter part) and cocoa butter (the fatty part that gives chocolate its smooth texture).
Chocolate is made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. Milk chocolate also contains milk powder or condensed milk.
Dark chocolate usually has a very high proportion of cocoa solids, usually 50-90%.
Milk chocolate typically contains 20-30% cocoa solids, with the rest made up of milk ingredients and sugar.
How about nutritional benefits?
Because dark chocolate contains more cocoa solids than milk chocolate, it naturally provides slightly higher amounts of certain minerals.
This table shows the difference between milk chocolate (30% cocoa) and dark chocolate (over 60% cocoa) per 20-gram serving. This is a row around a Lindt chocolate block.
As you can see, dark chocolate provides more minerals like magnesium, iron and zinc. It also contains significantly more caffeine (but much less than a typical cup of coffee, which contains about 100 mg).
Milk chocolate offers significantly more calcium due to the milk solids, but it usually contains a lot of added sugar.
Cacao is naturally rich in plant compounds called polyphenols. It acts as an antioxidant in the body, helping to protect the body’s cells from damage.
Because dark chocolate contains more cocoa, it naturally has higher levels of these compounds. In fact, dark chocolate contains almost five times more flavanols (a type of polyphenol) than milk chocolate.
Compared to other foods often praised for their antioxidant content, cocoa contains about 17 times more catechins (another type of polyphenol) than black tea. It contains about three times more than red wine.
Does dark chocolate improve your health?
Research on cocoa and dark chocolate has produced some interesting findings, particularly regarding heart health.
Cocoa flavanols appear to help relax blood vessels and support better blood flow. Some clinical trials have reported a slight decrease in blood pressure and improvement in measures of blood vessel function after consumption of cocoa products.
There is also extensive evidence to suggest that a diet rich in flavanols may be associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.
However, these findings come with important caveats.
Most of these trials use cocoa extracts that contain high levels of flavanols. Others contain specially made chocolate instead of the usual chocolate bars or Easter eggs you find in supermarkets. Tested doses are also often much larger and more concentrated than what people normally consume.
A large umbrella review (review review) involving more than a million participants found links between eating chocolate and lower risks of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
But the overall quality of the evidence was rated as weak or very low, largely because most of the studies were observational. Observational studies can identify patterns, but they cannot prove that chocolate itself caused these benefits.
The bottom line is that cocoa contains beneficial plant compounds, but the chocolate that most of us enjoy is not a health supplement.
But I thought dark chocolate had less sugar?
Choosing dark chocolate doesn’t automatically make it a healthy choice, especially where sugar is concerned. Some dark chocolates contain surprisingly high amounts.
Depending on the cocoa percentage and composition, some dark chocolate products contain 40-50% sugar.
So a 150g dark chocolate Easter Bunny with 50% sugar, for example, has 19 teaspoons of added sugar.
This also applies to Easter eggs. Some dark chocolate Easter eggs sold in supermarkets still list sugar as their first and main ingredient, ahead of cocoa butter. This means that sugar makes up an important part of what you eat.
So it’s always worth flipping the packet and checking the ingredients list and nutrition panel to be sure.
What to choose this Easter?
Dark chocolate has a nutritional advantage over milk chocolate. But how much depends on the percentage of cocoa and how it was made.
As a general rule, aim for 70% cocoa or more, and flip the packet before buying. In high quality dark chocolate, cocoa should appear first in the ingredient list – not sugar.
High-quality dark chocolate may contain the ingredients listed in this order: cocoa mass, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla.
Low quality dark chocolate may look like: sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, emulsifier, flavor, milk solids.
If sugar is listed first, it is the largest ingredient by weight.
Beyond that, choose chocolate that you really enjoy and watch your portion sizes. Remember that your whole diet is more important than a few Easter eggs.
The real health benefit of Easter chocolate? Enjoy sharing.
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