Daily Mail - 30.07.2019

Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019

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100g, £1.20, tesco.com.

Cocoa: 55 per cent.

Per 100g: Calories, 432;

saturated fat, 21.9g; protein,

5.3g; fibre, 34.8g; sugar, 3.2g;

salt, 0.02g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Marketed

as 90 per cent less sugar com-

pared to similar chocolates. It

uses the sugar substitute

erythritol, a sugar alcohol. It’s

essentially a reinvention of

diabetic chocolate with added

fibre. It is better for teeth and slightly

lower in calories. However, in large

amounts, erythritol has a laxative effect.’

TASTE TEST: Slightly crumbly, almost dusty

texture. Sweet for a dark chocolate, but

there’s no satisfying richness.

RAW HALO DARK

85 PER CENT

70g, £2.99, myprotein.com.

Cocoa: 55 per cent. Per 100g:

Calories, 543; saturated fat,

21g; protein, 27g; fibre, 8.7g;

sugar, 21g; salt, 0.2g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘This has

whey in it for extra protein,

but in the UK most people eat

enough protein anyway. A

glass of skimmed milk would

be a better, cheaper option if

you really wanted a protein

hit post-workout. It is lower in sugar than

some other dark chocolate bars with

55 per cent cocoa solids, though.’

TASTE TEST: Rich with a slightly powdery

aftertaste.

85g, £1.Cocoa: 40 per cent. Per

100g: Calories, 562; saturated

fat, 22g; protein, 5.8g; fibre,

4.8g; sugar, 48g; salt, 0.08g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘There’s

nothing particularly healthy

about these “darker milk”

versions of popular chocolate

bars. It may have slightly more

cocoa than Dairy Milk — 40 per

cent compared with 20 per cent

in the original — but this is still

48 per cent sugar. What you’re getting is

a slightly more grown-up flavour. They’ve

also reduced the serving size to encourage

people to eat smaller portions

of chocolate.’

TASTE TEST: Creamy and sweet, with a

deeper flavour than Dairy Milk. Moreish.

100g, £3.95, hotelchocolat.

com. Cocoa: 65 per cent.

Per 100g: Calories, 568;

saturated fat, 26.9g;

protein, 10g; fibre, N/A;

sugar, 24.9g; salt, N/A

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘This is

called “supermilk” because it

contains more cocoa and less

sugar and milk than normal

milk chocolate. It is one of

the lowest sugar chocolates that isn’t a pure

dark bar — around a quarter of the choco-

late is sugar (24.9 g per 100g) as opposed to

half or more for others. Sugar masks cocoa’s

bitterness and the cream in this chocolate

presumably does this instead. Slightly

higher in saturated fat than other bars

blending milk and dark chocolate but still

lower than pure dark chocolate options.’

TASTE TEST: With a creamy bite, this tastes

like the best of dark and milk chocolate.

HOTEL CHOCOLAT

SUPERMILK

GALAXY DARKER MILK

100g, £2.59. Cocoa: 100 per

cent. Per 100g: Calories,

601; saturated fat, 33g;

protein, 12g; fibre, 17g;

sugar, 0.5g; salt, 0.02g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘This is

pure cocoa solids, with no

added sugar or anything

else. It’s the highest in natu-

rally occurring fibre (Choc-

ologic has more, but some

of that is added), which

you’d expect it to be as cocoa is rich in

fibre and a fifth of this bar would give

about a tenth of your daily intake.

However, many people would struggle

to eat chocolate this dark and bitter.

TASTE TEST: Lingering texture but tasty,

given its extreme strength.

110g, £1.50. Cocoa: 33 per

cent. Per 100g: Calories, 542;

saturated fat, 20g; protein,

6.1g; fibre, not given; sugar,

54g; salt, 0.32g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘At 33 per cent

cocoa solids, this doesn’t

have much cocoa in it. [By

comparison, regular Galaxy

milk chocolate is 25 per cent

cocoa solids]. The sugar here

is more on a par with a milk

chocolate — more than half

the bar is sugar. It has 10g

(more than two teaspoons) more sugar

per 100g than Tesco own-brand

dark chocolate.’

TASTE TEST: Very creamy and smooth

— not dissimilar to original Galaxy.

MONTEZUMA ABSOLUTE

BLACK DARK CHOCOLATE

70g, £3, waitrose.com.

Cocoa: 85 per cent. Per 100g:

Calories, 587; saturated fat,

31.7g; protein, 10.8g; fibre,

N/A; sugar, 13.8g; salt, 0.2g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Fresh cocoa

beans have a higher flavanol

content than commercial

chocolate, so a “raw”, or less

processed, bar should be more

nutritious. However, no

research I know of has proved this is the

case. Also, “raw” chocolate has no set

definition so it could still have gone

through substantial processing. It’s made

from “raw cacao powder” but cacao is just

another word for cocoa and doesn’t nec-

essarily mean any extra health benefits.’

TASTE TEST: Very bitter, but surprisingly

smooth. Slightly cloying aftertaste.

/

MYPROTEIN DARK HIGH

PROTEIN CHOCOLATE

85g, £1.99, hollandand

barrett.com. Cocoa: 55 per

cent. Per 100g: Calories,

552; saturated fat, 21g;

protein, 6.8g; fibre, not

given; sugar, 46g; salt, 0.02g

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Markets

itself as vegan and free from

gluten, egg and nuts. Dark

chocolate should be vegan

— there shouldn’t be any milk

or eggs by definition. And

makers are not allowed to

put gluten in chocolate, apart from added

extras, such as wafers or crispy “puffs”.

Nutritionally it’s similar to other dark

chocolates — labelling it “vegan” doesn’t

make it healthier.’

TASTE TEST: Tasty, but with rather an

oily texture.

NOMO DARK

CHOCOLATE BAR

By JENNIE AGG

CADBURY DARKMILK CHOCOLOGIC NO ADDED

SUGAR DARK CHOCOLATE

Page 45

Is dark chocolate

REALLY so much

better for you?

It’s the sweet treat said to be good for

heart health and blood pressure, but...

W

HIle sugar warn-

ings have seen

sales of some of

the UK’s biggest

milk chocolate

brands fall, more of us have

turned to the dark side — as

sales of some ‘quality’ dark

chocolate brands, perceived

to be a healthier indulgence,

grew 14 per cent in 2017.

Small wonder that mainstream

brands want a taste of the action.

Galaxy recently launched a

‘Darker Milk’ variety — a blend of

milk and dark chocolate, following

Cadbury, which introduced its

‘Darkmilk’ version of Dairy Milk

last autumn. Many studies suggest

a link between dark chocolate and

improved health.

earlier this year, Portuguese

researchers reported in the

journal Nutrition that eating a

few squares of 90 per cent cocoa

dark chocolate every day could

lower blood pressure.

The benefits are thought to be

down to compounds called

flavanols in cocoa, particularly one

called epicatechin that helps keep

blood vessel walls elastic.

Some of the first evidence that

chocolate may be good for the

heart came from Panama’s Kuna

Indians. When researchers in the

Nineties compared data from

these remote islanders, who

consumed lots of a bitter cocoa

drink, with people living in

Panama City who didn’t, the cocoa

drinkers were found to have better

blood pressure and lower rates of

diabetes, cancer and stroke.

However, the flavanol content of

cocoa beans is reduced

dramatically by the processing

needed to turn it into chocolate

we find palatable — and can vary

significantly between products.

‘We know fresh, unprocessed

cocoa beans contain 10 per cent

flavanols, but processing the beans

into chocolate can reduce this to

between 0.5 per cent and even as

low as 0.001 per cent,’ explains Dr

Karin Ried, an associate professor

at the National Institute of

Integrative Medicine in Melbourne,

who has produced a review of the

evidence on chocolate and blood

pressure for the respected

Cochrane Collaboration.

While you might assume the

darker the chocolate, the higher

the flavanol content, this isn’t

necessarily so.

‘Research that compared the

flavanol content of 41 different

commercial brands of dark and

milk chocolate has shown no

correlation between the percent-

age of cocoa and the flavanol

content,’ says Dr Ried. ‘When it

comes to health, we need to look

at not just cocoa and flavanols,

but what else is in there.’

This includes the amount

of sugar.

‘In general, a higher cocoa

content is healthier,’ says Dr Ried.

‘And with a darker chocolate — I’d

recommend 75 per cent cocoa

solids and up — you also have a

higher amount of nutrients such

as magnesium (for healthy

muscles and nerves), zinc (for a

healthy immune system), and iron

(to make red blood cells), as well

as a little fibre.

‘Darker chocolate also tends to

be more satisfying, and you’ll get

more caffeine and theobromine,

which are mood-enhancing. A

couple of squares a day is not a

bad thing.’

Here, Duane Mellor, a dietitian

and senior teaching fellow at

Birmingham’s Aston Medical

School, assesses the leading ‘dark’

chocolate products. We then

tasted them.