Everyone knows to look at the ingredient list before buying processed food. However, these chocolate ingredients are so dense that you can't understand several long chemical terms. How can I choose the healthiest one?
It's actually quite simple. We just need to grasp two key points:
1. Cocoa butter or cocoa butter?
2. What is the content of cocoa?
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First of all, pay attention to whether the ingredients contain cocoa butter substitutes. If there is, this "chocolate" can be directly put back on the shelf. Because it is not chocolate at all, it should be called "cocoa butter substitute food".
Cocoa butter substitute is a kind of artificial stearin with low melting point, which is made from palm kernel oil through cooling, separation and hydrogenation. It has nothing to do with cocoa itself, but also contains trans fatty acids, which can make people fat.
Adding too much so-called "chocolate" instead of cocoa butter is often too sweet and greasy, not fragrant enough, and it is accompanied by bad taste like chewing wax.
Cocoa butter, derived from real cocoa, is a natural oil, which contains a lot of saturated fat, but does not raise blood cholesterol. At the same time, cocoa butter is also the source of chocolate silky taste. The higher the cocoa butter content in chocolate, the smoother the taste of chocolate. ?
Because the price of natural cocoa butter raw materials is more than double that of cocoa butter substitutes, some unscrupulous manufacturers will sell high prices under the banner of chocolate while using cocoa butter substitutes. If we don't pay attention to discrimination, we will probably spend the same or even more money as buying pure chocolate, but buy junk food to go home. So be sure to pay attention when choosing ~
Let's talk about the second key point-cocoa content.
The most important criterion for choosing healthy chocolate is cocoa content. The higher the cocoa content, the less other additives (such as vegetable oil and sugar) and the purer the chocolate.
Cocoa content is determined by cocoa butter and cocoa solids. In the production process, cocoa beans are first processed into cocoa puree, which will be processed into two substances, one is cocoa butter and the other is cocoa solid (that is, cocoa cake or cocoa powder).
Cocoa solids have a natural bitter taste, which is the slight bitterness of chocolate. It contains a lot of natural antioxidants-polyphenols. High polyphenol content can stimulate the proliferation of intestinal beneficial bacteria, so eating chocolate with high cocoa content is beneficial to intestinal health.
Now we know that the total content of cocoa is high (above 50%), and it can only be called healthy chocolate if pure cocoa butter replaces cocoa butter.
Dark chocolate with cocoa content above 70% is rich in flavonoids, which can effectively protect the cardiovascular system. Eating a small piece of dark chocolate before meals can satisfy appetite and avoid overeating, thus achieving the effect of losing weight. Long-term consumption of dark chocolate can also lower blood pressure and cholesterol. So the healthiest chocolate belongs to it.
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