There are no health benefits to high percentage dark chocolate. An article review.

Image by @joaopedru

We often see dark chocolate and cocoa associated with health and superfoods these days. Some question the claims, and rightly so. Chocolate over the past century has become associated with candy, sweets, and indulgence. However, chocolate was not always seen in this way for most of its history. For the South Americans and Mesoamericans thousands of years ago, the fruit and the seeds was seen as part of their market basket of food along with maize (corn) and beans to name a few. Eventually chocolate (in drink form as it originally existed) was thought of as a prized drink taken by the elites and nobility within the Aztec realm. Over the last few centuries in Europe, chocolate (again as a drink) was sometimes associated with health, and sometimes associated with indulgence to be taken moderately or not at all (much of this based on the antiquated theory of the four humours, and on religious ideas of the day).

And even today, as seen in this article by the Daily Mail UK, the debate still remains. Of course, the chocolate industry has many actors with a strong interest in promoting their food (Nestle, Hershey, Mars, Cadbury, Callebaut). In fact, most of the research in regards to the health benefits of chocolate and cacao are funded by these gigantic firms. Why? Well they have interest in doing so, and most of all, they have the extra money to fund researchers. Now obviously we know that just because some research gets published, it doesn’t mean the research isn’t without flaws. As well, it can easily be twisted by the media and the marketing industry to suggest something the research didn’t actually state. This is why I read and post summaries of primary research for you to read yourself in my research blog. It would be unwise to rely on “experts” or well executed marketing tactics, without doing your own homework as well. If you truly care to know the truth about your food and how it impacts your body, one needs to look deeper at what the research actually says and not rely on third parties to tell you what it says.

This article here leads the readers to essentially forgo any prior belief that dark chocolate, even at “ultra” high percentages, can benefit our health in any way possible. The “expert” here states that since high percentage dark chocolate doesn’t really benefit human health in any way, why force yourself to eat this bitter goo when you can just enjoy a sweet creamy milk chocolate instead. He brings up some good points, but also seems to be misinformed about many aspects of chocolate. Have a read over the article here for yourself first before I go on.

So let us go through this article, and expand on some of the ideas and statements presented here. The point of this isn’t to refute and criticize Dr. Mellor, as who knows if his words were recorded in a manner different than what they intended. It’s also not intended to criticize the article writer either. I thought this article raised some good points, and some good questions those within the fine chocolate industry don’t ask ourselves or take for granted.

Below I will quote the article in bold, and my response will be in normal text. Let us begin.

“If you’re tucking into an expensive ultra-dark chocolate Easter egg thinking that at least it’s better for you than its milk chocolate equivalent you could be wasting your time and money.

The supposed benefits of dark chocolate – from improving memory to preventing heart disease – are said to be down to the high cocoa content, which contains health-boosting compounds called flavonoids.”

Yes, nearly all the studies that look at the health benefits of fine chocolate do look specifically at the flavonoids (specifically flavanols such as catechin, epicatechin, and procyanidins) within cacao which are often referred to as “anti-oxidants”. Many foods contain various flavonoids at various levels. Cacao beans have some of the highest levels of these flavonoids, even more than many high-antioxidant fresh fruits and vegetables like blueberries and pomegranates. Tea has more, but we don’t actually consume as high levels from tea because we are not eating the actual tea leaves where most of the flavonoids remain even after steeping. Some of these flavanols in tea are consumed through the drink, but most of it is within the actually tea leaves. Chocolate is different, we eat the actual cocoa beans whether you are nibbling on some cocoa nibs or eating the chocolate made from ground cocoa nibs.

But Professor Duane Mellor at Aston University says most of the studies that tout such health claims ‘can’t be applied to the real world’.

‘The majority of studies that find very significant benefits don’t involve chocolate that you can buy in the shops,’ says Dr. Mellor.

This is also a true statement. Many of the research papers look at concentrated amounts of the flavanols from chocolate. This is a good point to bring up, and a honest one. There are some products out there sold as super health foods created by large chocolate firms which are said to contain these concentrated amounts of flavanols from cacao. Some of this research is funded in order to market the product, as is done with virtually every food/product sold these days - especially products deemed a health food. Many investors will not touch a health food product if it does not have published research to support its health claims.

‘The scientists use formulations that contain unusually high levels of flavonoids. Even a chocolate on the shelf that is 100 per cent cocoa won’t contain enough to make any difference to your health, unless of course you ate bars and bars of it every day.

This is where the article begins to fall apart. As stated above, regular chocolate (say a 65% dark chocolate made from roasted cacao) still contains more of these flavanols than your high flavanol/antioxidant fruits and vegetables per weight. With this logic, we would have to void the claims that tea, coffee, blueberries, goji berries, pomegranates, and dark leafy greens can also benefit our health due to their antioxidant capacity. The truth is, cacao beans and dark chocolate do contain higher amounts of these. So the question here is, if he wishes to dismiss all claims of health benefits of flavonoids (antioxidants) from chocolate, is he willing to do the same for all the other foods mentioned which are also promoted for these similar health benefits.

For some people, the answer here may be yes. Health benefits of antioxidants (flavanols) have been pushed hard by anyone marketing foods in the past couple decades at least. Nowadays, it’s not enough for a food to taste good, but it has to have some element of supernatural power associated with it to gain customers attention it seems. So the question here is, is the idea of antioxidants and our health overestimated? You will find those who refute or downplay the claims of antioxidants made by some research and some actors who promote foods based on this. And that is okay. Science has always been a collection of ideas and experiments, some of which are accepted and some of which are refuted. So depending on where you stand in regards to the power of antioxidants in our foods, your view here may be different than others.

Keep in mind this will not impact only chocolate though. In fact, if we are looking and levels of antioxidants, high percentage dark chocolate would be one of the last foods to be knocked off this list due to their naturally high levels of antioxidants which is found in the cocoa beans which are ground up and turned into chocolate. Many claim that raw chocolate (made from unroasted cocoa beans) contain more of the flavonoids, and they would be correct. You will see a study on this specifically in my research blog. That said, even regular chocolate made from roasted cocoa beans still contains much higher levels of these flavonoids than the other foods mentioned above.

‘But then the extra calories would bring about more significant risks that would outweigh any small benefit.’

The research does not support this claim per se. Any food can be misused and over consumed. This is one of the downsides of promoting these “super foods” as some people may be included to overeat them.

Chocolate is a high fat, high calorie food. No debate there. However, many calorie dense, high fat foods are not only healthful, but essential to our overall health. There are many foods which benefit our health and are calorie dense and high in fat such as nuts and seeds, nut butters, some meats, fish, some cheeses, olive oil, and avocados. However, consuming these regularly doesn’t automatically cancel out any health benefits . If consumed in moderation, the research suggests the opposite. If chocolate is over consumed, yes, the health benefits can be cancelled out since generally a very high fat high calorie diet is not beneficial to all (although this is debated by some as well). Some researchers who looked at the health benefits of dark chocolate suggest anywhere from 7-30 grams as moderate amounts of consumed most days of the week. You can find this browsing the health and nutrition category of my research blog in the Free Academy.

Keep in mind that cocoa beans are a seed that are about 50% fat, with some proteins and carbohydrates as well. This is similar to many nuts we consume which are also seeds. Not all the fats within cocoa beans/chocolate are bad either. Cocoa butter (the fat from cocoa beans) is made up primarily of 3 fatty acids (Oleic - found in olive oil, stearic, and palmitic). Although palmitic is a saturated fat, it only makes up 1/3 of the fatty acids. Oleic acid is the fatty acid in olive oil that is said to be beneficial to our health. As well, the high levels of antioxidants are suggested to impose their benefits, countering any negative impacts from the palmitic acid.

High percentage dark chocolate of 70%+ contains the same if not less sugar than many of the nut butters on the market today. Also keep in mind that many of these studies on dark chocolate or chocolate in general included chocolate with sugar sometimes around 65%. The presence of some sugar in our diet doesn’t necessarily eliminate all health benefits from our food.

If you’re tucking into an expensive ultra-dark chocolate Easter egg thinking that at least it’s better for you than its milk chocolate equivalent you could be wasting your time and money

High percentage dark chocolate isn’t always more expensive than milk chocolate, or not by much. So you’re not quite wasting your money. If you are buying fine chocolate as sold here at Bean To Bar World, then yes, any chocolate here will cost you much more than your grocery store chocolate. However, the plain dark chocolates are the same price, and sometimes less, than the milk chocolate bars. The article may be referring to a specific brand of high percentage dark chocolate, but choosing this type of chocolate in general is not more expensive than a milk chocolate of the same brand normally.

Now if you are buying dark chocolate ONLY or for the health benefits, and force yourself to swallow a 100% dark chocolate (which even I can’t quite understand) then that is a different story. I believe high quality nutritious food can be good and also taste great. You don’t have to think of dark chocolate as taking a spoonful of cod liver oil. As I said, many of the studies that looked at consumption of normal dark chocolate (not some high flavonoid super chocolate), were based on only 65%-70% Dark chocolate. At bean to bar world, chocolates in this range are anything but bitter!

One study estimated that a person would have to eat 12 large bars of dark chocolate every day for at least a month to get enough flavonoids to benefit heart health.

One study doesn’t cancel out hundreds of other studies that suggest the opposite. It’s always good and important to be critical of research, and look at the opposing side. However, this is quite the claim, and with no mention of the author of this research or where to find it suggests perhaps it may not be as accurate as they say here. Remember, it’s not enough to read the heading of a paper, or a concluding sentence, but to read through their data and mechanisms of how they concluded on that. You’d be surprised how much bad research (missing information, stats) gets published these days. As well, many times news articles are written about research, and conclude in the article something totally opposite of what the research actually suggests.

What’s more, the natural flavour of high-cocoa chocolate is extremely bitter. In order to improve the taste, many brands add extra sweeteners and fat. 

Many people make this claim. Many people who come to my virtual tastings often come with this conclusion already. The truth is, the natural flavour of high quality dark chocolate is anything BUT extremely bitter. This is like saying all cheese is terrible if you only ever ate yellow processed American cheese, and never ate a bite of real parmesan, asiago, or gouda. Truth is, most people have only had one type of dark chocolate in their lives, and think this is what dark chocolate tastes like. It’s like drinking a burnt Starbucks black coffee and thinking this is what coffee tastes like while missing out on all the various types and array of fine flavour coffee beans. This is also like stating like you hate tomatoes because you’ve only ever eaten flavourless grocery store tomatoes and have no idea the intense flavour good quality tomatoes can have. You get my drift? This isn’t to be harsh on the Dr. or the article author, as this is the belief of most people out there, and I understand why. However, the truth tastes much better.

I truly do understand this claim, as I myself used to think this as well. Contrary to what most people may think, I didn’t love or even like dark chocolate until my early 20s when I was introduced to some fine chocolate. I had no idea dark chocolate could be so enjoyable, not bitter, and so interesting in flavour! I’m not a chocolate snob who thinks everyone else should enjoy dark chocolate, I’m a convert, who misunderstood the essence of chocolate to begin with.

It is true that some low quality chocolate makers do add extra sugar to improve the taste of their poor quality cocoa. This is no different than Starbucks adding syrup shots and artificial flavour enhancers to mask the poor flavour of their coffee. It is also true that alternative fats to cocoa butter are added in low quality chocolate, but this wont’ improve or impact the taste. It impacts the profit margins for the chocolate maker.

This can rack up the calorie count to a level far higher than standard milk chocolate.

Not true at all. Whether the chocolate bar is pure 100% cocoa with only cocoa butter, or replaced with alternative fats, it will not change the calorie count by much. Again, this is also a contradiction as he is trying to disclaim the health benefits of dark chocolate, which is made from a high percentage cocoa bean, and lower percentage of sugar. If we are discussing chocolate with high sugar content, then it is no longer higher percentage or “ultra” dark chocolate. If it has a lot of sugar, then it could also very well be a commercial milk chocolate.

Hotel Chocolat’s 100 per cent Dark Chocolate Easter egg (£15) contains roughly 1,200 calories per egg – more than half an adult woman’s NHS-recommended limit.

Yes, and a block of butter contains over 3000 calories. Again, one can eat a whole large Easter egg if they wish, just as they could eat a whole pizza or whole brick of fudge, but a sensible healthful person likely would not, and certainly not on a regular basis. As I said earlier it is good to point out that even though a food may be deemed a “super food” it doesn't mean it can be overconsumed. This I agree with. However, it seems the point here is to shock the reader with the high calorie count, but not many people can sit and consume a whole 100% egg in one sitting. I myself likely can’t consume even a bite of it.

This brings me to my next point. Many people think if they want to enjoy the health benefits of dark chocolate, it needs to be 90%+ or very bitter as a sign of nutritional quality. Nearly all the 100% dark chocolate out there on grocery shelves is made from beans that are too bitter or intense to really enjoy on their own without some sugar. Chocolate was never intended to be eaten 100% (the unground cocoa beans perhaps, but that’s a different story for another time). Think of coffee or tea. We don’t eat slabs of coffee beans or tea leaves as we do eat a slab of chocolate (ground up cocoa beans) . Sure some people can chew back a few coffee beans, but they are also usually covered in a sweet chocolate coating. Chocolate, similar to tea and coffee was initially consumed as a water based drink. The cocoa beans were diluted or tempered with water before consuming. When chocolate became a bar instead of a drink in the mid 20th Century, it couldn’t be diluted with water (since it is a fat based product - we can’t add water based ingredients when making chocolate). Therefore, it was in a sense diluted with some sugar. The worse the cocoa bean, the more sugar to dilute it! Sugar tempers the intensity of the flavour, just as water tempers the flavour of coffee and tea (which most people also temper it even further with sugar as well).

Now if you enjoy bitterness in your foods (a often learned behaviour, or also based on the type of bitter receptors you have in your mouth), then by all means go ahead and enjoy that bitter dark chocolate. My point here is that dark chocolate doesn’t have to be bitter to be of high quality, or to be nutritious.

The equivalent sized Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Easter Egg (£4) contains about 1,080 calories.

Yes, and you are more likely to finish a very sweet and palatable milk egg in one sitting than a 100% dark egg. So in fact, buying the dark egg will force the consumer to take their time with it (if they do in fact enjoy the high bitterness). Buying the sweet milk chocolate bar is likely asking for trouble and a stomach ache after you wondered how you finished the whole thing in one sitting.

‘The only real health benefit of dark chocolate is that you generally don’t eat a lot of it,’ says Dr Mellor. ‘The bitterness dries the mouth, which means you are more likely to feel satisfied after a couple of squares.’

Again, this is only very poor quality dark chocolate. High quality dark chocolate isn’t bitter or only has a hint of it. The astringency comes from the same tannins some of which are also the antioxidants.

The supposed benefits of dark chocolate – from improving memory to preventing heart disease – are said to be down to the high cocoa content, which contains health-boosting compounds called flavonoids 

True, much like every other high flavonoid foods. Although the mechanisms behind this are still being researched and debated.

And the key to not eating too much of whatever chocolate you prefer is not to deprive yourself.

I would agree with that as well. In fact, many people find consuming fine dark chocolate actually forces them to eat less of it in one sitting. The saturation of flavour per bite is so much more satisfying than most dark chocolates in the grocery stores. Consuming food that is underwhelming and unsatisfying often forces us to eat more of it. Each bite isn’t wonderful, so you want to over eat thinking the next bite will be the satisfying one, but it never is. Good quality flavourful real and natural foods satisfy your mind before they fill your stomach. Something to keep in mind.

‘Studies show that people are less likely to eat too much chocolate if they don’t deny themselves it. 

'So eat the chocolate you want to eat – you’ll be more likely to stop before you’ve had too much, Dr. Mellor says.

I would agree with this too, but again, it leads consumers to indulge in less nutritious high sugar chocolate than the more nutritious lower in sugar dark chocolate. Instead, we should be helping people appreciate and understand what real good dark chocolate tastes like, which it appears Dr. Mellor or the author of this article never had a chance to try. I have had many converts in my tastings, who once confronted with the fine flavours of fine chocolate, understand how delicious and satisfying it can be.

If you like milk chocolate, that’s perfectly fine! I enjoy a wide array of fine milk chocolate without shame. In fact, there are even many high percentage milk chocolate bars on the market now within the fine chocolate world. They offer higher amounts of flavonoids while still offering the creaminess of a milk chocolate.

Check out the online shop here for an array of flavourful, low-bitter dark chocolates, and some higher percentage milk chocolates. If you need help choosing, send me a message!