Difference Between Milk and Dark Chocolate: Which Is Worth Eating?

Who doesn’t love chocolates? Eating too many chocolates gives you a guilty pleasure. From dark to milk, from expensive to inexpensive, quality and taste vary. So does their effect on our health.

As we all know, the main ingredient of chocolate is the cocoa powder which is full of nutrients. But there are other additives and ingredients those give various tastes and textures. The quality of chocolate is mainly controlled by the concentration of these items.

Now, you can debate over the topic that dark chocolate or milk chocolate, which one should be considered better. Of course, it’ll be decided after considering their impacts on our health. Before coming to any conclusion, let’s do a comparative discussion.

Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate:

Ingredients:

Milk chocolate, as the name indicates contains milk. At the same time, it contains less cocoa powder. So to compensate the flavor, sugar is used as the substitute of cocoa which is not appreciable. As cocoa is the major source of nutrient, milk chocolates lack nutrients.

On the other hand, Dark chocolate mainly contains three ingredients. These are cocoa powder, cocoa butter and a small amount of sugar. a true dark chocolate contains 70-80% of cocoa. And it doesn’t contain any dairy. Sometimes it may have some flavorings in addition. Poor quality chocolate may also contain some vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter.

Nutrients:

Milk chocolate contains 535 calories per 100 gm. of it. It contains 52 gm. of sugar and 3.4 gm. of fiber. It contains-

• Manganese -24% RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance)
• Copper -25% RDA
• Iron -13% RDA
• Magnesium -16% RDA
• Zinc -15% RDA
• Potassium -11% RDA

On the other hand, dark chocolate has 605 calories Per 100 gm. of it with cocoa solids of 70-80%. And fibers? It contains 11 gm. of it. Of it which is 3 times than that of in milk chocolate.

• Manganese -98% of the RDA
• Copper -89% RDA
• Iron -67% RDA
• Magnesium -58% RDA
• Zinc -22% RDA
• Potassium -21% RDA

Thereby we can conclude that dark is more nutrient dense than the milk chocolate.

Health benefits:

Beneficial compounds:

Dark chocolate-

Among the hundreds of beneficial substances, the following three are the most compelling.

Theobromine- which has anti-inflammatory, antitumoral and also cardiovascular protective.

Phenylethylamine-

This stimulant helps you to feel good by releasing endorphins in your brain.

Polyphenols-

These are health- protective. They reduce the chances of heart diseases, cancer and even, dementia!

As milk chocolate contains less amount of cocoa, so it also lacks these above compounds.

Cardiovascular benefits

Dark chocolates have good effects on the cholesterol profile of a human body. Actually, it’s the cocoa that the dark chocolate contains. It has a lot of antioxidants those are heart protective.

It’s acknowledged that cocoa rises the level of good cholesterol, HDL. At the same time, it reduces the harmful one, LDL. Taking 100 gm. Of dark chocolate per day is, therefore, recommended. It’ll help lowering any cardiovascular risk. It also reduces inflammatory markers and blood pressure.

But both milk and sugar from milk chocolate can risk the cardiovascular function.

Skin benefits

Dark chocolate has powerful beneficial effects on the skin.

• Polyphenols provide resistance to UV radiation
• Cocoa flavanols affect the wrinkles and the elasticity of skin positively.

Chocolates also affect skin aging. Glucose and fructose are the main culprits behind skin aging. And unfortunately, most of the carbohydrates of chocolates is mainly sucrose. And sucrose is nothing but half fructose and half glucose.

As sugar constitutes a large portion of a milk chocolate, so it’s easily understandable that it’s no good for skin.

Weight loss

When it comes to weight loss, fat and carbohydrate are the two things you need to avoid. Both dark and milk chocolate contains an almost equal amount of calories. But milk chocolates contain more carbohydrate.

The amount is actually 50 gm. per 100 gm. while, in dark chocolate, it varies from 8-35 carbs. Low carb foods have positive effects on insulin. But carbohydrate increases the secretion of insulin.

On the other hand, Studies shows that Dark chocolates help losing weight. But that doesn’t mean you eat a lot of dark chocolate daily. It probably supplements the consumption of high sugar chocolates. And this is how helps you reducing weight.

However, the saturated fats (61%) in dark chocolate is mostly stearic acid. and it's a cholesterol neutral. The amount of unsaturated fat is only 3%. It also contains 36% monounsaturated fats.

Harmful effects

There are no completely good things on earth.

The level of harm can be determined by considering two issues. If there is any contaminant and how much sugar it contains.

Studies showed that dark chocolate contains 30-70 Nanograms of Pb per gram of it. But still, doctors don’t suggest to quit consuming chocolates. Rather encourage since it contains a very small amount of sugar.

As milk chocolate is poor in cocoa, it contains fewer lead contaminants. In fact, the amount is 11-35 Nanograms per gram of it. But still, it’s not recommended by doctors as they are high in sugar content. Some commercial milk chocolate contains sugar up to 50%.

So after considering all the aspects, it’s evident that dark chocolate is the healthier one. Therefore, it's worth eating if the taste is not your first priority.

Final Words,

While milk chocolate tastes amazing, dark chocolate wins over it in all other aspects. It has anti-aging compounds, is beneficial to our cardiovascular system and is nutrients-enriched. All these are enough to keep it in your diet chart.