Chocolate!!!
It’s everywhere! – moulded into rabbits and eggs, foil wrapped, brightly boxed and packaged, decorated with all manner of colours, bows and ribbons. Just as well; it’s the packaging that’s the attractive part – the physical appearance of chocolate is not it’s appeal…..
I do feel a bit sorry for chocolate though – it’s much maligned – usually at the top of the list of ‘foods to be avoided for healthy living’. However, there’s chocolate… and then there’s chocolate….
Manufactured chocolate is an amalgamation of different ingredients - like cocoa mass, cocoa butter, milk, sugar, soya lecithin and vanilla. Perhaps added flavourings and colours depending on what product you buy, or it may be used as a coating around another confection or biscuit which increases the sugar content. Usually, the first (therefore highest quantity) ingredients are either sugar or milk, unless you buy a bittersweet chocolate in which case the cocoa mass should come first and then the sugar. If you like a white chocolate there is no cocoa mass at all – just the cocoa butter, milk and sugar. Other confection can have vegetable fat in addition to the cocoa butter.
So is chocolate friend or foe?
As with so many foods, the further removed from the natural state, the weaker the benefit.
Research on health benefits is carried out with specific ‘flavanol-containing chocolate’ and ‘cocoa products’. Unfortunately, not a crème egg or a twix.
So what to do? Well, despite the long list of ingredients on a chocolate bar label, it’s actually very easy to make your own from very few key ingredients! That way you can determine exactly what goes into your chocolate treat and retain more of the nutritional benefits. Indigo Herbs (www.indigo-herbs.co.uk) have shared their special chocolate recipe and can provide all the raw ingredients you need to create your own health-boosting confection! All you need is some cacao powder, cacao butter, agave nectar and vanilla, follow their easy recipe to heat and combine the ingredients, pour into a mould and set in the fridge (do taste the mixture though before you pour it as the raw cacao powder is bitter). Really easy and great to do with children!
Have a happy, healthy Easter!