To make a solid dark chocolate from the cocoa powder, a chocolate manufacturer will add some cocoa butter (the natural fat from the cocoa fruit) and some kind of sugar, usually refined white cane sugar. A dark chocolate can be bittersweet or semisweet or sweetened , depending on how much sugar is added to the cocoa powder and cocao butter.
While raw cocoa and cocoa powder and certain kinds of dark chocolate can legitimately claim to be healthy foods , this is definitely NOT true for the manufactured candy which is called white chocolate . A recent study showed ZERO health benefits from consuming white chocolate - while consuming dark chocolate showed some important measurable health benefits related to lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, and increasing insulin sensitivity.
Remember, so-called white chocolate is not really a chocolate - and certainly not a healthy chocolate . It is white because it does NOT contain any of the dark brown cocoa powder found in dark chocolate and milk chocolate, and provides none of the healthy flavanols. It is not made from the cocoa bean or nib, but from the fatty cocoa butter extracted from the fruit part of the cacao plant.
Here is another important fact to remember when choosing a healthy chocolate ... Studies indicate that dairy products block the absorption of the many antioxidants found naturally in raw cocoa powder and dark chocolate! Thus milk chocolate and most chocolate candies are not the best choices when you want to eat a truly healthy chocolate that supplies a naturally high concentration of antioxidants.
