As of: February 29, 2024, 2:31 p.m
By: Sarah Isele
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Just a piece of chocolate – and your mood improves.
There are different varieties of the little sin from dark to white.
But which chocolate is the healthiest?
Chocolate is considered to nourish the nerves and comfort the soul.
It is said to release endorphins, also known as happiness hormones, in the brain and we automatically feel better after consuming it.
So it's perfect to take with us on a regular basis.
And which chocolate is actually the healthiest?
What is chocolate?
We are trained from an early age to associate moments of happiness with chocolate: when opening the Advent calendar doors, during an Easter egg hunt in spring or during a cozy film evening on the sofa.
Strictly speaking, the term chocolate only includes variously processed products whose main ingredients come from the cocoa bean.
Mainly made from cocoa butter, cocoa mass and cocoa powder.
We differentiate between different types of chocolate depending on the cocoa content.
White chocolate does not contain dark cocoa powder, only cocoa butter.
Milk chocolate contains at least 25 percent of the total cocoa mass, milk chocolate 30 percent and dark chocolate 50 percent.
Which chocolate is healthiest?
Due to the high cocoa content in dark chocolate, it is considered healthy.
Because chocolates with a particularly high cocoa content automatically contain less sugar.
At the same time, the proportion of cocoa, which contains potentially health-promoting phytochemicals, is higher.
As a rule, dark chocolate contains around 70 percent cocoa, some varieties even contain 85 percent.
These varieties contain relatively less sugar and milk components.
This means they taste less sweet and creamy, but have an intense, slightly bitter cocoa aroma.
Some of the phytochemicals that make dark chocolate healthy are responsible for this bitter note - especially so-called polyphenols.
The healthiest chocolates in the HEIDELBERG24 ranking:
1st place: dark chocolate
2nd place: dark chocolate
3rd place: milk chocolate
4th place: White chocolate
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Is white or milk chocolate healthier?
The cocoa, which is used to make chocolate, contains phytochemicals.
These are actually a natural defense reaction of the plant against predators, but for humans they are a good health prophylactic.
During chocolate processing, cocoa beans are roasted, ground and pressed.
The resulting mass consists of liquid cocoa butter and solid components such as cocoa powder.
For white chocolate, the two components are separated and only the cocoa butter - i.e. the colorless fat - is used.
As a rule, white chocolate only consists of 20 percent cocoa butter, the rest is milk and sugar.
The valuable and healthy substances are not in the fat, but in the cocoa powder.
Therefore, you can always assume that darker types of chocolate are healthier than white ones.
Which chocolate has the least sugar?
If you want to eat chocolate with little sugar, you should always choose dark chocolate.
In contrast to white chocolate, milk and dark chocolate use the unseparated cocoa mass.
This is where the healthy plant substances are located.
Dark chocolate with 50 to 100 percent cocoa content is therefore healthier than milk chocolate.
At certain times of the year, however, people often go without, including chocolate - there are different ways of fasting, and we present the healthiest ones here.
When it comes to chocolate, the food and nutrition consultant at the Schleswig-Holstein Consumer Center, Saskia Vetter, explains: “The cocoa content of a chocolate reveals a lot about its fat and sugar content.
As a rule, the more cocoa, the more fat and the less sugar is contained in the chocolate.” If you prefer dark chocolate with little sugar, you will find this in the dark chocolates with a cocoa content of 90 percent or more.
If you prefer a low fat content, you will find what you are looking for in semi-sweet chocolates with 50 to 60 percent cocoa.
Which chocolate is safe to eat?
Dark chocolate is the healthiest.
Although dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content and therefore less sugar, it has a high fat content and contains 598 calories per 100 grams.
That affects the weight.
Chocolate contains antioxidants or flavonoids that work like vascular cleaners.
(Sometimes it's definitely worth avoiding chocolate altogether and eating healthy fruit instead.)
Through this little sin, our cardiovascular system is protected and cholesterol levels can be reduced.
Nevertheless, you should avoid eating chocolate every day.
Current studies show that many of the healthy effects of chocolate could only be achieved with far too large quantities.
No matter how dark the chocolate is, one bar still contains 500 kilocalories and that already covers a quarter of our daily calorie needs.
(rah)