Chocolate Nutritional Profile*
Energy value (calories per serving): Moderate
Protein: Low (cocoa powder)
High (chocolate)
Fat: Moderate
Saturated fat: High
Cholesterol: None
Carbohydrates: Low (chocolate)
High (cocoa powder)
Fiber: Moderate (chocolate)
High (cocoa powder)
Sodium: Moderate
Major vitamin contribution: B vitamins
Major mineral contribution: Calcium, iron, copper
* These values apply to plain cocoa
powder and plain unsweetened chocolate. Adding other foods, such as
milk or sugar, changes these values. For example, there is no
cholesterol in plain bitter chocolate, but there is cholesterol in
milk chocolate.
About the Nutrients in Chocolate
Cocoa beans are high-carbohydrate, high-protein food, with less
dietary fiber and more fat than all other beans, except soy beans.
The cocoa bean's dietary fiber includes pectins and gums. Its proteins
are limited in the essential amino acids lysine and isoleucine. Cocoa
butter, the fat in cocoa beans, is the second most highly saturated
vegetable fat (coconut oil is number one), but it has two redeeming
nutritional qualities. First, it rarely turns rancid. Second, it melts
at 95°F, the temperature of the human tongue. Cocoa butter has no
cholesterol; neither does plain cocoa powder or plain dark chocolate.
Cocoa beans have B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin) plus
minerals (iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and copper).
One ounce sweet dark chocolate has 1 g
dietary fiber, 9 g Eat (5.9 g saturated fat), 0.59 mg iron (4 percent
of the RDA for a woman of childbearing age), 33 mg magnesium (9
percent of the RDA for a man, 12 percent of the RDA for a woman), and
0.42 mg zinc (2.8 percent of the RDA for a man, 3.5 percent of the RDA
for a woman).
Cocoa beans, cocoa, and chocolate contain caffeine, the muscle
stimulant theobromine, and the mood-altering chemicals
phenylethylalanine and anandamide (see below).
The Most Nutritious Way to Serve Chocolate
With low-fat milk to complete the proteins without adding saturated
Eat and cholesterol.
NOTE: Both cocoa and chocolate contain oxalic
acid, which binds with calcium to form calcium oxalate, an insoluble
compound, but milk has so much calcium that the small amount bound to
cocoa and chocolate hardly matters. Chocolate skim milk is a source of
calcium.
Diets That May Restrict or Exclude
Chocolate
Antiflatulence diet
Low-calcium and low-oxalate diet (to prevent the formation of calcium
oxalate kidney stones)
Buying Chocolate
Look for: Tightly sealed boxes or bars. When you open a box of
chocolates or unwrap a candy bar, the chocolate should be glossy and
shiny. Chocolate that looks dull may be stale, or it may be
inexpensively made candy without enough cocoa butter to make it gleam
and give it the rich creamy mouth-feel we associate with the best
chocolate. (Fine chocolate melts evenly on the tongue.) Chocolate
should also smell fresh, not dry and powdery, and when you break a bar
or piece of chocolate it should break cleanly, not crumble. One
exception: If you have stored a bar of chocolate in the refrigerator,
it may splinter if you break it without bringing it to room
temperature first.
Storing Chocolate
Store chocolate at a constant temperature, preferably below 78°F. At
higher temperatures, the fat in the chocolate will rise to the surface
and, when the chocolate is cooled, the fat will solidify into a
whitish powdery bloom. Bloom is unsightly but doesn't change the
chocolate's taste or nutritional value. To get rid of bloom, melt the
chocolate. The chocolate will turn dark, rich brown again when its fat
recombines with the other ingredients. Chocolate with bloom makes a
perfectly satisfactory chocolate sauce.
Dark chocolate (bitter chocolate, semisweet chocolate) ages for at
least six months after it is made, as its flavor becomes deeper and
more intense. Wrapped tightly and stored in a cool, dry cabinet, it
can stay fresh for a year or more. Milk chocolate ages only for about
a month after it is made and holds its peak flavor for about three to
six months, depending on how carefully it is stored. Plain cocoa, with
no added milk powder or sugar, will stay fresh for up to a year if you
keep it tightly sealed and cool.
What Happens When You Cook Chocolate
Chocolate burns easily. To melt it without mishap, stir the chocolate
in a bowl over a pot of hot water or in the top of a double boiler or
put the chocolate in a covered dish and melt it in the microwave
(which does not get as hot as a pot on the store).
Simple chemistry dictates that chocolate cakes be leavened with baking
soda rather than baking powder. Chocolate is so acidic that it will
upset the delicate balance of acid (cream of tartar) and base (alkali
= sodium bicarbonate = baking soda) in baking powder. But it is not
acidic enough to balance plain sodium bicarbonate. That's why we add
an acidic sour-milk product such as buttermilk or sour cream or yogurt
to a chocolate cake. Without the sour milk, the batter would be so
basic that the chocolate would look red, not brown, and taste very
bitter.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect Chocolate
Freezing. Chocolate freezes and thaws well. Pack it in a
moisture-proof container and defrost it in the same package to let it
reabsorb moisture it gave off while frozen.