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What kind of chocolate candy is best for your health? Date published: 8/19/2005 By JENNIFER MOTL Q You recently mentioned that dark chocolate is heart-healthy.
My wife and I do not eat chocolate or candy of any type. What would be a good dark chocolate? M&M’s or Hershey’s Kisses? If these do not work, what would you consider best? We greatly thank you for your fine newspaper articles. —D.B., Spotsylvania A That’s a great question about one of my favorite foods. Chocolate is graded according to how much cocoa solids it has. The more cocoa, the darker the chocolate appears and the richer it is in heart-healthy antioxidants. Cocoa powder is the richest, followed by baking chocolate, then semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, next sweet or dark chocolate and finally milk chocolate. This makes sense if you understand how chocolate is made. Cacao (not cocoa) trees grow in hot climates such as Africa, Mexico, Central America and Southeast Asia; pods from the trees are harvested and opened to release cacao beans. The cacao beans are cleaned, dried and fermented, roasted and shelled, then crushed and heated to form a brown liquid called “chocolate liquor.” The chocolate liquor is pressed to separate brown cocoa powder from the golden liquid cocoa butter. The brown cocoa powder has all the antioxidants. Baking chocolate is simply pure chocolate liquor poured into molds and solidified. Baking chocolate is bitter, since it has no sugar. In comparison, “semisweet” or “bittersweet” chocolates have at least 35 percent chocolate liquor, plus sugar and extra cocoa butter to make them melt easily, according to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. Some of the best-quality dark chocolate contains at least 60 percent to 70 percent cocoa solids. European chocolates tend to be richer and sometimes advertise the percent cocoa solids on the label. “Sweet chocolate,” also called “dark chocolate,” has 15 percent to 35 percent chocolate liquor plus cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla, while “milk chocolate” has only about 10 percent chocolate liquor and added cocoa butter, milk, sugar and vanilla, making a mellower flavor. And “white chocolate” isn’t really chocolate, as it contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids.
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