Be Choosy About Chocolate

A few years ago, the food media burst forth with reports of studies claiming that chocolate may actually be good for us. Chocolate’s chemical core contains a myriad of substances that raise the level of seratonins and endorphins (the body’s feel-good and falling-in-love hormones); plus, its caffeine-like components contribute to quick energy bursts, perfect for athletic and intellectual effort. These studies even speculated that dark chocolate is good for heart health, and contains cancer-fighting antioxidants!

While this news is music to the ears of chocolate lovers, and while these reports have not, as far as I can tell, been strenuously refuted, it may be wise to take them with a grain of salt (or a crystal of sugar, as the case may be), since the most well-publicized of these studies were funded by large candy companies!

So, while there may be a kernel of truth to claims about the virtues of chocolate, it’s still wise to be choosy about what kind you and your family consume. Encourage them to be connoisseurs of pure, fine dark chocolate instead of candy bars (yes, even vegetarians can succumb to the lure of candy bars, especially from those strategically placed machines), which are filled with white sugar and often, partially hydrogenated fats. Natural foods stores are a great source for fine organic chocolates, including Green and Black’s, Newman’s Own, and Rapunzel.

The same wisdom applies when choosing chocolate for baking. Natural foods stores, once again, are your source for more natural, and naturally sweetened, chocolate chips (cane juice instead of white sugar). Tropical Source makes excellent dairy-free baking chocolate. Their semi-sweet, peanut butter, and espresso chips are superb. Sunspire is one of the only easy-to-find sources of natural, organic chocolate chips. The flavor is not the most chocolatey, but they are acceptable, particularly if you are adamant about using only organic ingredients. I often purchase organic chocolate chips in bulk from Jaffe Bros. online; they are sporadically unavailable, alas, but are wonderful for baking and for making homemade chocolates. The latter is also a great source for organic fruits and nuts.