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How dark chocolate became a health food

No surprises to the nutritionally savvy among us. And this has not diminished my love of dark chocolate!

Quote:

The Mars company has sponsored hundreds of scientific studies to show cocoa is good for you.
...
Cadbury Jr.’s newest confection loaded just about every buzzy health trend into a fresh green-and-white package: vegan, ethically sourced, organic dark chocolate and creamy, superfood avocado. The company promised to deliver the nutrition of avocados — in a chocolate bar. Journalists were dazzled.

Wait, what? Make no mistake: This vegan avocado chocolate bar is candy. With nearly 600 calories and 43 grams of fat per 100-gram serving, the bar packs more fat and calories than Cadbury Dairy Milk, and just a little less sugar.
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“Mars and [other chocolate companies] made a conscious decision to invest in science to transform the image of their product from a treat to a health food,” said New York University nutrition researcher Marion Nestle (no relation to the chocolate maker). “You can now sit there with your [chocolate bar] and say I’m getting my flavonoids.”

Amid a historic obesity epidemic, this new niche of nutrition science has helped build a solid aura of health around chocolate — and grow consumer demand. Chocolate retail sales in the US have risen from $14.2 billion in 2007 to $18.9 billion in 2017, the market research group Euromonitor International found, at a time when candy sales overall have been waning.
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When you look at industry-funded studies, one thing becomes clear: They tend to focus on the health attributes of cocoa: its impact on cardiovascular health or cognitive function. But they don’t address the role the cocoa delivery mechanism — sugary chocolate — may play in obesity. Most Mars and Hershey chocolates also contain very small amounts of the cocoa that supposedly promotes heart health — along with lots of fat, sugar, and calories.

Dark chocolate is now a health food. Here’s how that happened.

We are alert to sugar and the overall healthy diet. We don't fall for the game. But be aware, that's all.

I'm happy with my organic 100% chocolate. Calories, schmalories :yum:

From the post linked to above:

"And a diet heavy in chocolate is a diet heavy in sugar, calories, and fat."

Except when it's not. I would love to see some studies focusing on the benefits of non-candy cocoa in a healthy, sugar free diet.

I enjoy a lot of plain, unsweetened, cocoa powder - in my coffee, in spiced teas, as mole sauces and rubs and mixed with coconut cream in frozen desserts (with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners), and I believe that it is a good source of fibre, and potassium among other things.
The main trouble I see with chocolate is that everyone assumes you can only enjoy it as a sweetened candy bar. The deliciousness is still there if you can ween yourself off the sugar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cshepard

I completely agree! I get high quality cocoa and add it to my whole milk, unsweetened, yogurt with berries; delightful! Shreds of baking chocolate also work.

It doesn't have to have the sugar. And there's nothing wrong with fat; cocoa butter, either.