▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
Just after the Spring Festival holiday, the Valentine's Day that many couples eagerly awaited followed. On this day, in addition to roses, chocolate is also essential.
But there are so many varieties of chocolate on the market, what is good to buy?
Don't worry, read this article first, I believe you will be more aware of what kind of chocolate to buy.
Image Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dark_chocolate_bar.jpg#file under CC BY-SA 3.0
Chocolate is often described as a food that is "good for cardiovascular and brain health." If you happen to see something like this, you might let your guard down about chocolate.
However, the health benefits of chocolate are somewhat exaggerated ingredients, and when buying, we must also pay attention to choosing the right type and eating it appropriately.
Flavonoid component in cocoa
Chocolate contains cocoa, which contains a variety of flavonoids and is a natural antioxidant, which is the main reason why chocolate is considered to have health benefits.
Previous studies have found that flavonoids help lower blood pressure, reduce unhealthy cholesterol components in the blood (LDL cholesterol), increase beneficial cholesterol components (HDL cholesterol), promote blood flow, and reduce insulin resistance.
Cocoa also has some benefits for the brain, and there is evidence that the flavonoid components in cocoa contribute to mental function and language performance in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.
But (everything is afraid of "but"), these benefits don't mean cocoa has long-term health-improving effects.
Cocoa can improve some cardiovascular risk factors in the short term, but there is no evidence that it reduces the incidence of serious cardiovascular events; nor does it prove that it is "possible to prevent Dementia and psychological decline".
Back to flavonoids, as antioxidants, it can reduce damage to cells and, in addition to its potential cardiovascular and brain effects, is thought to have possible anti-cancer effects.
However, different studies have given different results regarding the "anti-cancer effects" of chocolate.
Some studies believe that eating chocolate can reduce the risk of certain cancers; but others have given the opposite opinion, believing that eating chocolate increases the risk of cancer.
Regarding the effect of chocolate on cancer, further research is yet to be confirmed.
What is the difference between the content of different chocolates, cocoa and cocoa butter?
Different types of chocolate, cocoa content is also very different, from the "cocoa butter content" on the packaging can be seen.
Common dark chocolate, cocoa butter content can reach more than 70%, cocoa content is also the highest;
Milk chocolate has a smoother taste, but the cocoa content has decreased a lot;
As for white chocolate, the cocoa content is negligible, because the main ingredients in it are only cocoa butter, milk, sugar and flavoring, which cannot be regarded as real chocolate.
Overall, dark chocolate has the highest cacao ingredients and a relatively low sugar content, making it a good choice.
It should be noted that no matter what kind of chocolate you eat, it is somewhat difficult to consume enough flavonoids.
A daily intake of 400 mg of flavonoids is the standard used in most scientific trials.
How much chocolate do you need to eat to get so many flavonoids?
That's roughly equivalent to 8 pieces of dark chocolate, or 30 pieces of milk chocolate.
However, there are still sugars and fats in chocolate, flavonoid intake is enough, sugar and fat intake is also exceeded, calories are also exploding.
Cocoa powder removes fat and is healthier than chocolate
Compared to chocolate, cocoa powder has a higher cocoa content.
Cocoa powder is usually made from cocoa beans through fermentation, baking, grinding and other processes, and the fat in it has been basically removed during the production process.
Therefore, the flavonoid content of the cocoa powder used in the cocoa powder may be relatively closer to the amount used in these scientific studies.
▲Cocoa powder is mostly used to prepare milk, cereal and other drinks (Image source: 123RF)
Be wary of these "chocolate" ingredients that are harmful to health
We talked earlier about cocoa butter, which is a natural vegetable oil extracted from the cocoa beans after they are made into cocoa liquid blocks.
It contains more saturated fat, which is not healthy. But if the chocolate is missing it, the taste is not "silky" and rich enough, so it is still necessary to exist.
What everyone needs to be wary of is the ingredient "cocoa butter generation".
Because cocoa butter is more expensive, there are many "chocolate" flavored foods on the market (such as chocolate biscuits, chocolate milk tea, chocolate bread, etc.), which are used instead of cocoa butter.
This is a low-cost, artificially processed vegetable oil that may contain trans fatty acids and be harmful to health.
In addition, everyone should also pay attention to the high sugar content in chocolate.
If you replace white sugar, fruit grape syrup, etc. with sugar substitutes such as erythritol and steviol glycosides, you can reduce calorie intake, and occasionally eating will not be so "guilty".
However, it is not recommended to eat sugar substitute foods for a long time, but may increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular and other diseases (retrospective poke sugar can "feel at ease" to enjoy sweetness?). These studies tell you the truth about health).
If you want to avoid these unhealthy chocolates, be sure to look at the ingredient list when buying.
Of course, there is also a "three noes" slimming product covered with a "chocolate" shell, which is useless depending on the ingredient list.
The main ingredient of this product is chocolate, which looks very ordinary, but it is illegally mixed with long-banned slimming drugs such as sibutramine, and even other diuretic and sedative prescription drug ingredients (the ingredient list on the package will not be written).
Image source: Fujian Health News[4]
Adults who eat it will still have severe insomnia, rapid heart rate, loss of appetite, and suicidal tendencies;
What's even more frightening is that the child accidentally eats it, there have been many tragedies of "the child dies after eating weight loss chocolate by mistake" (we wrote before, the details poke this chocolate no matter how hungry you are, don't eat it!). 2 people have died and many people have been rushed to the hospital for rescue, reminding families).
Everyone must buy chocolate from formal channels, and do not buy it from unknown sources. People who want to lose weight, don't covet a temporary effect and ruin their physical and mental health.
In short, although eating a piece of chocolate may not improve your cardiovascular and memory, nor may it prevent cancer, giving chocolate on Valentine's Day is still a way to express love.
It's just that you want to have a moderate amount of oh ~
Image credit: 123RF