Happy Valentine's Day!

There is just so much chocolate around right now that it’s getting hard to resist. But, you know what? Chocolate is not at all that bad if you know which one to pick. Dark chocolate actually has these antioxidants known as tannins that are good for your health. As a matter of fact, tannins are the same antioxidant that you would find in green tea. However, notice that for dark chocolate to be beneficial, it has to be at least 60% cacao. Usually, when the cacao percentage is that high, it is quite bitter but it is still chocolate, right?

On the other hand, white chocolate is probably the worst type of chocolate you can have. Not only does it have close to no antioxidants but it is very high in calories and fat. In chocolate you have 3 main chocolaty ingredients: cocoa powder, cocoa butter and chocolate liquor. In white chocolate there is no cocoa powder but a lot of cocoa butter. Unfortunately, most antioxidants are found in cocoa powder due to its dark rich brown colour. So, the darker the chocolate is, the better it is for you. Thus, you can imagine why white chocolate is the worst of them all. 

The second worst is milk chocolate. In most cases, there is close to none real cocoa ingredients in milk chocolate and it has lots of sugar and milk solids. In fact, I’ve always found milk chocolate a bit suspicious. When you read the label on the package, it sometimes says something like chocolate product instead of milk chocolate. I don’t know what all that is about. Anyway, go for dark chocolate this Valentine’s day and enjoy! Don't forget to watch those calories, though.