Busting Nutrition Myths - You can have your milk chocolate and eat it too!

It’s like a he said-she said, eh? (I’ll be Canadian for a sec.)

Dark chocolate afficionados look down upon us milk chocolate lovers, like we’re stupid or something. Like we think the earth is flat.

Milk chocolate lovers don’t really care. We just love chocolate. You take your dark, let us go in peace with our milk.

People will say, ah, but dark chocolate is so much more complex, so rich, so healthy and lower in fat. Well, I say, not really. In my experience dark chocolate can be extremely bitter and as a super taster I am not a fan of bitter. It can be unpleasantly grainy as in cocoa powder-type grainy. Even some of the more expensive brands of dark chocolate I’ve tasted have had a grainy texture.

Dark chocolate is known to cause migraine headaches among migraine sufferers. I am a migraine sufferer. This is reason enough to avoid dark chocolate. But extremely dark chocolate also causes my heart to pound- even as little as an ounce or two, and it keeps me awake at night. Even coffee doesn’t keep me awake at night.

I experienced a chocolate epiphany on my recent trip to Montana. I asked my sister to accompany me. She claims to be addicted to 85% dark chocolate, says she sucks on it for her nerves. She did quite a bit of sucking on the trip and was pretty much a nervous wreck the entire time. You tell me which came first, the chicken or the egg?

According to my tongue, 85% dark chocolate tastes like pure poison. It’s the alkaloids I’m tasting, especially the theobromine (a stimulant) in chocolate that is indeed, a poison at higher doses. Theobromine is the reason dogs can die from eating chocolate. (Chocolate is also poisonous to cats and birds.) This is especially true if a dog eats dark or unsweetened chocolate. Dogs can tolerate a surprising amount of milk chocolate depending upon the dog’s weight because of the lower theobromine content. For example, My huge GSD, Louie, once got into a chocolate bar. My vet told me not to worry. He said the dog could probably eat 72 ounces before experiencing any symptoms.

Humans experience theobromine toxicity at about 1000mg/kg. We have a much higher threshold than dogs and cats. For dogs the threshold is 300mg/kg, for cats 200mg/kg.

But leaving all that aside…

A. Most dark chocolate lacks the silky mouth feel of milk chocolate.

B. Depending upon the recipe and the preparation, milk chocolate can be equally complex, flavor-wise.

C. Milk chocolate has the following health benefits: (I don’t worry about fat although sugar is an issue. There is usually more sugar in milk chocolate.)

1. Milk chocolate contains serotonin, an anti-depressant.

2. Milk chocolate acts as a mild stimulant, not because of caffeine, but because it contains two chemicals- phenylethylamine and ye olde theobromine, both stimulants, and both of which, at higher concentrations, clear the lungs of secretions if they don’t make you sick. In other words, a cup of cocoa can help with a cough and chest congestion.

3. Milk chocolate is high in B1, B2, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, magnesium and potassium.

4. Studies have shown that milk chocolate can lower blood pressure.

5. Milk chocolate provides a boost to the immune system.

6. Milk chocolate can lower blood levels of LDL cholesterol while raising levels of HDL cholesterol- the good cholesterol.

Dark chocolate does the same, might even do it better, but it’s not my preferred method of chocolate.

I’m picky about my milk chocolate - nothing too sweet or sugary, nothing too milky, nothing grainy. The chocolate must melt in my mouth. If I taste caramel, that’s an added bonus.

My favorite? It’s hands down the best. (Here’s a little secret- I’ll even indulge in their dark.) Guittard.