Sometimes it’s hard to decide which is your favourite chocolate. Some days call for the creamy smoothness of milk; others find you seeking to recreate feelings that take you back to your childhood when you savoured the sweetness of white chocolate. Some days find your tastebuds craving a single square of bittersweet dark chocolate. 

But which kind of chocolate is better? We’ll ignore white chocolate as not many of us would choose to buy white in preference to milk or dark. White chocolate is for kids, isn’t it? So, for this article, we’ll compare milk with dark. 

The Nutrition Facts

Many people assume that dark chocolate is healthier thanks to all the antioxidants. But is this true? Let’s start with the basics of how chocolate is made. 

All chocolate starts with the main ingredient – cacao (or cocoa) beans that come from the cacao tree. These healthy little beans contain protein and fibre and are a fantastic source of minerals such as magnesium and iron. They’re also rich in powerful antioxidants (as mentioned above), particularly flavonoids such as catechin, epicatechin and procyanidins. Flavonoids help to regulate cellular activity and fight off the free radicals that cause oxidative stress within your body. In fact, there are more antioxidants in cacao than in most fruits and vegetables. So, it’s no wonder that chocolate is linked to all kinds of health benefits, including lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease. It’s also said to offer stress relief, which we can definitely attest to. How many of us reach for chocolate when we’re feeling stressed? 

So far all well and good. Both milk and dark chocolate are made from cacao which has many health benefits. But then things get a little complicated. It all depends on the percentage of cacao in the chocolate compared to the other ingredients. We’ve probably all seen that dark chocolate mentions the percentage of cacao on the front of the packaging while milk chocolate often doesn’t mention it at all, except in the ingredient list. And that’s because milk chocolate may contain as little as 10% cacao while some bars of dark chocolate will contain up to 90% cacao. There are even bars that are 99% cacao – although whether they can really be called chocolate is debatable. Try one and you’ll see what we mean. So, as you can see the bars with the highest cacao content are the healthiest. The more cacao, the more fibre, minerals, and antioxidants. 

What else goes into a bar of chocolate other than cacao? Sugar and milk. The main ingredient of some chocolate bars is sugar, followed by milk and then the cacao. Dark chocolate tends to contain about 50% of the sugar of milk chocolate and (as its name suggests) contains less or even no milk at all. 

Which is Better? 

If you’ve decided that you’re going to include chocolate in your diet for health reasons, then undoubtedly dark chocolate is the best option, especially if you choose options with over 75% cacao and a low sugar content. It’s also a good choice for anyone who can’t or chooses not to drink milk – although it must be said that there are some very good vegan chocolate options available now. 

However, even dark chocolate is calorie dense and should still be considered an indulgence. Just a couple of squares a day is enough. 

But, just to have the last word. While dark chocolate may be the healthier option, we believe that you should eat the chocolate you enjoy the most, whether that’s dark, milk or white! After all, life’s too short not to enjoy an indulgence every now and then.