If you are cutting and looking for a healthy snack, you might reach for a bar of dark chocolate. After all, dark chocolate is said to have health benefits and it could help you lose weight. But is that really the case?

WHAT IS CHOCOLATE?

Chocolate is a food product consisting of cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar.

Chocolate is loved by many: it is a real treat. The most coveted type of chocolate is milk chocolate.

WHAT IS DARK CHOCOLATE?

We speak of pure chocolate when the product consists of at least 35% of dry cocoa components. There are also pure chocolates with a cocoa content of 70, 80, 90 and even 100%.

The purer the chocolate, the more bitter it tastes. And the purer the chocolate, the healthier, right? We will investigate the latter later.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF COCOA

Cocoa powder is made from the kernel of the cocoa bean. It is very nutritious and at the same time low in calories: only 27 kilocalories in 1 tablespoon (7 grams).

The main health benefits of cocoa:

Cocoa and therefore chocolate contain flavanols. Flavanols are a type of antioxidant. By neutralizing free radicals, antioxidants protect cells and tissues from aging. In this way, they reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer ^[i][ii];
Flavanols also help lower blood pressure by stimulating the production of nitric oxide (NO) ^[v][vi];
Cocoa also helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels by increasing the good HDL cholesterol and lowering the bad LDL cholesterol. Cholesterol, like blood pressure, is a major factor in the risk of heart disease ^[iii]^[iv];
Cocoa may improve brain function by increasing blood flow. It also contains stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine ^[vii]^[viii]^[ix]^[x];
Finally, cocoa is packed with healthy nutrients, especially minerals. One bar of dark chocolate (100 g) contains almost 100% of the recommended daily amounts of copper and manganese and is also rich in iron, potassium, magnesium and zinc.

Now you understand why dark chocolate is considered healthy: it contains a lot of cocoa, up to 100%, significantly more than milk chocolate (< 35%), and cocoa has several health benefits that are somewhat supported by science.

The latter is once again evident from a new meta-analysis of 39 studies. The conclusion:

The consumption of cocoa showed protective effects on major cardiometabolic risk markers that have a clinical impact in terms of cardiovascular risk reduction^[x].

BUT WHAT ABOUT COCOA BUTTER?

In addition to cocoa powder, chocolate also contains cocoa butter and sugar. Cocoa butter contains virtually no fiber and minerals, while it is rich in fat, especially the not so healthy saturated fat. In addition, cocoa butter is high in calories: 894 kcal per 100 grams. Definitely not a miracle cure for losing weight.

NUTRITIONAL VALUES

How nutritious are different types of chocolate? Some examples from the supermarket as an indication (values per 100 grams):

Pure

Lindt with 78% cocoa: 610 kcal, 24 g saturated fat, 17 g sugars;
Lindt with 90% cocoa: 573 kcal, 30 g saturated fat, 7 g sugars;
Lindt with 100% cocoa: 614 kcal, 34 g saturated fat, 0.5 sugars.

Milk

Côte d’Or L’original milk: 527 kcal, 18 g saturated fat, 55 g sugars;
Verkade Tablet milk: 560 kcal, 21 g saturated fat, 52 g sugars;
Milka Chocolate bar alpine milk: 560 kcal, 21 g saturated fat, 52 g sugars.

What is striking is that dark chocolate and milk chocolate have about the same amount of calories and saturated fat. The difference is in the sugars: these are significantly less present in dark chocolate, with a difference of up to 50 g per 100 g.

So dark chocolate has two advantages: healthy and low in sugar. But they do have the same number of calories and saturated fat as other snacks, such as milk chocolate.

If you want to lose weight, your total daily calorie intake should be below your maintenance level. Eating dark chocolate doesn’t make that any easier: it contains just as many calories as less healthy snacks.

CONCLUSION

We leave the moral of this story to coach and scientist Menno Henselmans:

Dark chocolate is still very high in calories and it is easy to eat too much of it, but in moderation it is healthy. Enjoy!^[xi]

How healthy is dark chocolate?