“If there are any milk solids mixed into cacao, it goes from hero to zero really fast, regardless of the cacao vs. cocoa powder argument. Dairy essentially nullifies cacao’s benefits, blocking nutrients from absorption. And even the highest grade of dark chocolate usually has some dairy in it.”
Nonsense. Notice that if the Lindt nor the Sams dark chocolate contains dairy it’s only by some microscopic contamination as with almonds and coconuts.
The only thing we really have to avoid is heavy metals and sugar.
Even though many dark chocolate bars do not contain milk I see no studies that show that a milk additive is detrimental. Even if you are lactose intolerant, the amount of lactose you would receive in a couple of ounces of a milk chocolate bar wouldn’t hurt you.
“They found that 41 g of milk chocolate contains almost as much phenol as 140 mL of red wine. 2 It is known that cocoa is rich in polyphenols such as (−)epicatechin 3 and that a coloured component of cocoa (cocoa-red) is polyphenol, which is found also in red wine”
“In an animal model of atherosclerosis, cocoa powder at a human dose equivalent of two dark chocolate bars per day significantly inhibited atherosclerosis, lowered cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides, raised high-density lipoprotein, and protected the lower density lipoproteins from oxidation. Chocolate has thus been shown to have potential beneficial effects with respect to heart disease.”
Most studies do not use the term “Cacao”, they use the term cocoa or chocolate.
Cocoa is the none fatty part of cacao.
If you can show studies that show a significant difference in the benefits of cacao vs cocoa I would be interested.
“The 27-g chocolate portion was
in the form of candy-coated M&M’s baking bits, which provided
0.732 MJ, 0.021 g caffeine and 0.18 g theobromine. Each 27-g
chocolate portion contained 46 mg epicatechin and a total of 186 mg
of procyanidins. The bread (bagel) provided 0.544 MJ, 0.75 g total
fat, 25 g carbohydrate and 4.5 g protein in a 47-g serving”
Even M&Ms provide some benefits.
“Time to exhaustion (TTE), average heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and total work (WT) for the endurance exercise were compared between trials. TTE and WT were significantly greater for chocolate milk and FR trials compared to CR trial. The results of this study suggest that chocolate milk is an effective recovery aid between two exhausting exercise bouts.”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)65927-2/fulltext
