Are you a chocolate lover and do you try and buy dark chocolate as a healthier option? We do you find yourself eating the entire block anyway? On today's product review, which we are thinking will be one of our most popular, we review some of the best dark chocolate varieties in
supermarkets and discuss is there really a healthier type of chocolate? Hi, I'm Leanne Wood and I'm Suzy Burrow, and as two of us stas leading dietitians, we bring you the nutrition Couch product grooview, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites you can find at AUSSI supermarkets. So chocolate, let's be honest, Susie, who doesn't love chocolate? But do you love a dark chocolate? And are you're a fan? Oh?
I can eat Unlike most people, Lean I can eat any chocolate. I am a chocolate lover, but my natural tendency is to go towards milk, and I do go through sort of phases of different types. At the moment, I'm obsessed with boost bars. I do wish that one that you don't have to buy the entire box of Favorites to get the mini boosts, which are obviously better for portion control. I'm waiting for them to bring out
a mini boost pack so I can portion control. But I go through phases, you know, that might last for two or three months, and then I'll be onto something else. But yeah, I don't mind dark chocolate, but I don't routinely buy it. And it probably lends itself to a bit of a chat about the cognitive control of chocolate versus as you described as your soul foods. So I always say to clients, don't buy the dark chocolate and eat the whole block because you think it's better. Really
think about what you enjoy the most. But you know, there is some evidence also to show that there's a programming effect. You know, over time you can program yourself to look for the more richer flavor. I know that you love dark chocolate. You've got one that is it mint? That the one that you love?
Yeah, I love a min one. I love a good midone and assalted caramel. I love the link. The link squares the dark chocolate salted caramel. Yeah, David's pretty hard cool. I think you buzz a lint ninety seven ninety seven percent That for me is just a little bit too bitter. But he has problems with portion control, so he likes it because he really just the one squads enough for him. If we bought the milk chocolate, he'd eat the entire block, So for him that works really well for portion control.
I have found as I get older, I can't have blocks of chocolate ever, Like everyone will to eat the whole block because it's so Moorish. So you're not alone if you're a whole block eater. It's about learning how to portion controller, which we will cover a little bit today.
Yeah, and I find dark chocolate for me, it's just easier like it. It's more satisfying. Like with milk chocolate. I'll eat and eat and eat it and be like, yeah, that's okay, but I I don't love it, so I'm not fully satisfied. So for me, the dark chocolate is actually more satisfying. I think for whatever reason, I just don't think it's as I don't know. I just don't want to keep going back for more of it. So I'm excited about our review today and the first product.
Due to popular demand, we've got another Audi product in here. So it's the Monsa Roth eighty five percent coco block of chocolate. So this is two ninety nine at Aldi and a serving size is twenty five grams, so they're actually portioned to these little like individually bars, So portion control wise they're pretty good, even though I would probably say, Susie, a portion is probably bigger than some other sort of pre portion like the mini little blocks of chocolate or
little snack pack. So I think twenty five grams is a decent serving for a portion size, so that's pretty good. I'm thinking we should probably review per hundred grams though today, because each one is a different size.
I do. I love these portion control packs, and it's actually reminder to me because I don't routinely shop at Audi one, I know how much people love this product, but also that it is one of the few that does come in portion controls like this is fantastic, and I agree, let's we'll review one hundred grams for comparison. But I think this kind of twenty gram twenty five gram service makes it so much easier when it comes to controlling ourselves around tempting food.
And individually portioned as well. It's not just you know, put into little squares. It's sort of like you have to unwrap a whole new thing each time, which is good, and it's a good amount so you don't feel like you're deprived. It's a great amount. Yeah, yeah, so per one hundred grams. So we're comparing similar amounts through the three different chocolates we're reviewing. So energy wise, we've got two thy five hundred killo duels or just shy of
six hundred calories. We've got eleven grams of protein, fifty grams of total fat, thirty of that being saturated fat. It's actually quite high saturated fat, nearly twenty grams of carbohydrates, nearly fourteen grams of sugar, so I guess quite low sugar in comparison to high fat. And then that probably makes sense when we look at the ingredient list, which we've got cocoa mass, cocoa butter, then sugar, then alkalis, reduced fat, cocoa powder which I've actually never heard of before,
susi a multifier, and vanilla extract. And the allergen listed is soy, so it actually contains soy for anyone with our soy allergies at home. Made in Germany. Yeah, what do we think about this one? It's very high saturated fat. That's probably the first thing that stood out to me.
So if you're somebody with kardiak issues or heart problems or in the family, this is probably something that I would be very mindful in terms of portion size wise, because for our cardiac population, probably not great to have something so high and saturated.
But I think it's a reflection of the quality because of course a chocolate that's eighty five percent cocoa and well made will have a higher proportion of fat coming from the actual cocoa butter, which is why it tastes great now, just as a reference point, So per serve on that I know we're talking about one hundred gram but per serve at seven point seven grams are saturated fat.
So for context, if we are trying to achieve what we call a one to one to one PMS or poly tomonoisaturated fat ratios, which is what is ideal to promote cellular health and reduce inflammation in the body for the average adult, who's say aiming between sixty to eighty grams of fat in total per day for weight control, and we're breaking that down to roughly fifteen to twenty maybe slightly higher grams of each polymonos and saturates for balance.
So that is giving you about maybe up to a half of your entire recommended upper intake of saturated fat per day. So for me, if I was counting it, I would be like, well, you certainly want to be having reduced fat, dairy, low fat dairy. You certainly want to keep an eye how much cheese you're having, and you certainly want to be choosing extremely lean red meat
and eating it sparingly. Because where we get saturated fat in the diet is from snack food, it is from cakes and pastries, it is dairy, and it is from meat. So it's just good to be aware that if you do have high cholesterol and you do need to be a little bit mindful about your saturated fat intake, this is giving you a good chunk at least a third of your upper daily intake in that portion. But you
are right, it's relatively low in sugars. They and it's three point five grams for that twenty five gram serve and the calories at one point fifty. I you know, if at the end of the day with clients I sway to them, you've probably got one hundred maybe churn to calories spare if you want to have dessert or if you want to have a glass of wine. So this will sort of fit there quite nicely in portion control.
So there's pros and colons like anything, but you're right, you know, for those people who have a history of issues with cholesterol and liver, you do have to be a little bit mindful. It sits in that category similar to meat and dairy, and you want to eliminate as much other processed food as you can.
And I think that's a good point because I think a lot of people would add in something like a this is eighty five percent coco. This is a good quality type of dark chocolate. You know a lot of brands out there will say it's dark chocolate. When you look at the label it's like forty percent. You know it's sixty percent. So I think from the research it shows as Susie, it's over seventy is over seventy or eighty percent to really get the antioxidant benefits.
I think they're pretty similar. I think basically the higher the better, the higher amount, the better the quality. So as part of a Mediterranean diet, a really well balanced diet that doesn't contain much other processed food at all. It's a great addition, but as we're going to talk in a future episode, people add this in and then their diet will still has the other rubbish in it, and that's where it's not healthy. So it's always about the context. So but it is certainly I know that
people love this flavor lead and that's important. You know, it's no good if we come in here and say this is a great product if it tastes like rubbish. So the fact we know this is incredibly popular and then nutritionally really good quality at eighty five percent level
is fantastic. So yeah, absolutely, I haven't been specifically recommending products like this, but I probably will think about this a little bit more now I know people like it, and it really does have that very high percentage of cocoa, which is where the nutrition comes from. Just going back to that alcalis reduce that cocoa powder. I suspect that's just to keep its shelf life stable. Yeah, okay, because
it's important. They'll have quite a long life on it, and because it is fat, it can be unstable and you get that bloom on it. So I would suspect that's just a processing aid to keep it better in good quality when you buy it at the shop.
Yeah, which I think is fine. Like I think people you know, looking for a really clean ingredient least, we don't want any you know, extra things in there that it needs to be there. But I think something like that to keep it shelf stable, as you mentioned, is absolutely fine. We wouldn't really be too concerned with that. But as you said, I really agree the context is important. So this is a better quality dark chocolate, but let's not sugarcoated. It's still a chocolate at the end of
the day. And I think people when they look at something like that, they're like, oh, this doesn't counter or it doesn't matter because it's such a good quality, I'll just add it in. But as you said, if you're having two glasses of wine every night and you're having a pastry in the afternoon, and you're having meat three four, five times a week, you're probably not doing yourself a favor from a health perspective by adding something like this. You really need to look at the quality of your
diet overall. But I quite like this. I really actually enjoy this brand from Aldi sus It's it's beautiful. It has a beautiful mouth feel when you eat it as well. I think that's from the high percentage of cocoa butter. It's very popular. So I glad we included this one to day because it is very affordable, it's great from a portion control perspective, and as you said, it tastes delicious. So the other big one we're going to review is
a manufactured in France. This is our Lint brand, and again Lint, I think probably has to be one of the most popular chocolate brands of all time. I myself, I'm a massive Lint fan, and even though they're not individually portioned, when you break them off the squares, I
feel like they're individually portioned. So the squares are about serving size is twenty grands in this one, so slightly lower than the Audi one at twenty five grams, and the Lint we've chosen this seventy percent cocoa one in here. As I said, Mahabi, it's the ninety five percent one, so as I say, he's pretty hardcore. Seventy to eighty percent is probably the most that I like. I think it gets too bitter after that, but it is a
little bit more expensive. So this block retails for five dollars for one hundred grams, compared to the Audi one is two ninety nine for one hundred and twenty five grams. So I know it does come on sale a lot of coals and will, but this is one that is a little bit more costly than some of the other brands. So serving size is twenty grams. But again we'll go through the one hundred gram column. So, Suzi, do you want to run us through the per hundred gram amount on this one?
Sure, So per hundred grams it is twenty three hundred and fifty kilo jewels, which is what is that about? Six almost six hundred calories nine point five grams are protein, forty one percent total fat, so certainly a high fat food. Twenty four gram saturated so that's about what is that eight grams less so not insignificant, sorry, yes, eight grams less than the AUDI product carbo hydrate thirty four grams, twenty nine grams of which is sugar. So basically what's
happening in this formulation. It's got less saturated fat but more sugar, and that's the way food works. You know, if you've got something that's got less fat, it's often got more carbohydrate. They've got to make the food out of something. So the ingredient lis Land is really clean, like cocoa, mass, sugar, cocoa, butter, vanilla. So the Audi one is pretty clean too, but this is even more
is even more clean. And all they've done, is we've said, is they've got a little because the cocoa percentage is less seventy percent versus eighty five percent. They've pulled some fat out and they've added extra sugar to give it at you know, the flavor that we love, which is sweeter. So this translates. I think you'll be more familiar than this an I am, because I'm not a link chocolate person.
But a square I believe of lint. So a little square of cabridge is about five whereas a square of lintz ten gram, So twenty grams is two of the largest squares. Now, lean The problem I have with lint is that in terms of the Audi one, you take the row and that's the serve, whereas this like only two thirds of the rows to serve. Now, let's be honest, who's leaving an extra square, so most people are consuming
thirty grams. That's at least that's my experience. It's also relatively expensive, like five dollars for that block, is it is one hundred grams, Like you are, you know, paying a premium price for this. Now, I know that chocolate's often half price in Woolies and Goals, but it's not an insignificant amount to be spending. Eye they're on a treat type food, I think overall in terms of the
grocery budget. So in terms of that twenty grams for two squares, it's just over one hundred calories, which is quite a nice portion if you can control yourself. Eight point two grams are fat total and four point it saturated, so a little bit less, but it's not so much less you would say it's a much better product. It's still relatively high and saturated fat. It's still giving you a third, you know, a quarter of your recommended upper
daily intake in that couple of squares. The sugars again, it's almost double, so five point eight gram so about just over a teaspoon of sugar in those two tiny squares. So you know, I kind of sit middle ground with it. Leanne like, I think it's quite a good product. I think if I was choosing between the Audi and the LIN, I'd probably say the Audi it because really, even though the saturated fat in the AUDI is higher, it's it's
a good portion control. You're less like it over eat it because if we said, right, people are probably not going to have two squares of LIN, They're probably going to have three. Well, then the saturated fat's almost the same as the AUDI one, So I think it's mindful
to be It's still a treat. Two squares is a serve, and if you're going to be buying this product, you really want to be able to control yourself and make sure you can only have two squares because in my experience, the squares strope break off that easily either so when you flip you break it, you get a little bit of the next one anyway, and of course then you eat it. So it's not overly helpful when it comes
to portion control. And I would be encouraging Link to do more portion control packs myself, because you know, it really does sit in a snack category for a lot of people after dinner.
I mean, I love the limp balls because again, like they're really easily portion controls, but they're expensive. I mean, I really love them because I tend to. I think people know that Link's one of my favorite brands. It's creamy, the mouth feels beautiful, and I think I get a lot of it if it's my birthaer, it's Christmas or something like that. Like I said to Mum, I don't want, you know, the normal chocolate. Give me some limp balls.
They're beautiful than my favorite, but they're honestly, they're really expensive, and again, unless they're sort of half prize that calls on waves, I don't really touch them because they're not really budget friendly at all, although they are delicious, So I prefer the little balls versus sometimes they're squares because they are a little bit better portion control wise. But I agree. I think both of the products are excellent.
They're both very good quality dark chocolates. But I just don't want people to lose sight of the fact that it is still at chocolate. It's not something we can just add will nearly into our diet and go all right, We'll have a couple of squares every single night, and
that's fine and it doesn't count. But I don't think there's too much of a different serving size wise to say, if you were, say diabetic versus having high cholesterol, you would go one towards the other shore ones they're audi ones higher and saturated fat, and they're lit ones higher and sugar. But I don't really think it makes as long as you can stick to the recommended portion sizes.
I don't really think it makes that much difference clinically or have that much of a clinical difference or effect to really be recommending one or the other. And I'm like USUZI I would probably lean towards the audi one just from a budgeting perspective, because I think it is a lot more cost affordable.
I would agree, and it is reflective of the better quality ingredients and sort of global issues in terms of supply, So things like cocoa mass cocoa butter are very very expensive, and the same in the case of Caboy's chocolate, which is of course a milk based chocolate. Milk is really expensive, so that explains why the cost of these products are increasing.
But I never would pay full price for chocolate, like I will only ever purchase it when it's half priced, So it's you know, as part of a budget issue. It's some fair enough. And the thing with limp balls is that that one limp ball is not in significant in calories either. So it's a rich food and a reminder of how little of these high fat foods we need to get the actual high fat amounts. You know, they're not products. You can have six limp balls, but I know what to bring up to Brisbane next time.
I know you're a sneaky limp ball lover. Definitely that in the bottle of French rose. I'll be your best friend. But also a good point with limpballs. They're not the high We're not getting the benefits of the antioxidant content because the limp balls aren't eighty percent cocoa mass either,
So I think that's probably a good point. Then. More like a milk chocolate based if anything, and it's something that you're going to eat because it's delicious, but it's very hard to sort of stop eating because although they are portioned size, you don't get that nice sort of bitterness effect that a good quality dark chocolate gives you, which really helps you to sort of stop over eating, or I feel anyway, So I think that's an important point it's really that you need to be, you know,
upwards of seventy eighty percent coco to really get those high quality antioxidant benefits. So the last one we've chosen Susy today is our good old friend Cabri, but we've chosen the old Gold variety, and I think a lot of people just look at that and think Cabria. It's not actually that good quality. But I think some people would be surprised to know that this actually has eighty one percent dark chocolate in it. So we've gone towards
the old Gold Roast alm and variety. So this is five dollars for a block, and I think the block is one hundred and eighty grams, so compared to the lint that was five dollars for a block, at one hundred grams, you're getting nearly double the product for the same price. So affordability wise, again, it's quite a lot more budget friendly. So a serving size is twenty five grams in the old Gold Roast Almond or four squares. So these squares are a lot smaller than the lint,
than the Limp variety. Like I think they probably a third of the size or half the size they're quite small. The squares in the old gold, Oh.
They're tiny. They're the typical cabria. But what I'm just checking the in is even though the traditional old gold is listed to seventy percent cocoa mass, it doesn't list on this product, which makes me think it's not the See, this is only forty five percent cocoa, so it's got a much lower percentage, which is why it's not claimed. So it's one that allows it to be cheaper, but you're not getting the antioxidant benefits that you would have
something that's the seventy or even eighty five percent. So that's important to know because you can get a high percentage cocoa goal, but it's not part of this rostum. And this is only forty five percent.
Yeah, I see that now, So it says dark chocolate eighty one percent. But that's sort of it's very misleading, isn't it From a marketing perspective. The cocoa mass in there is actually only forty five percent, So we wouldn't call this very high, would we know.
That's why this sugar is first. Yeah. Interesting, Yeah, so there's a little tweak there, and that's the difference in chocolates. That's why it's a bit cheaper. Obviously you're getting some benefits of some numb, but.
It doesn't taste anywhere near as bitter.
Yeah, And their first ingredients sugar, So that's just sort of an indication of the different formulations and the quality.
Yeah. Interesting. So if we look at the ingredient list, we've got sugar first, and then cocoa mass, then almonds and cocoa butter fourth, with milk solids and mulsifiers, and it just says flavor last. I'm not quite sure what the flavor is there. So I think that's probably the biggest difference between the three ones we've review today. This one has sugar first and cocoa butter four. So I think the quality of this overall, if we're just comparing
dark chocolates, is just not as good quality. As you said. We're not getting those antioxidant benefits. So when we look at the nutrition label per hundred grams, we've got just over two thousand kilodeels, we've got nine grams of nine grams of protein, and they four grams total fat and sixteen grams of saturated fat, so lower saturated fat percentage, which would make sense because cocoa butter is a little
bit further down the list of ingredients. Then we've got forty seven grams of carbohydrates and forty three grams of sugar, So the sugar content in this one is a lot higher, and that makes sense because sugar's our top ingredient. And then we've got thirty listed of seven milligrams, which is
basically nothing. So when we look at the serving size for twenty five grams, so four little squares gives us five hundred and sixty eight kilodials, two grams of protein, eight point six grams of total fat, four grams of saturated fat, so lower saturated fat, but higher sugar at ten point seven grams of sugar. So I think this one, Zuzi would definitely come out of the three, definitely little last, just because it's not that good quality as the other two brands.
I think that the sugar is basically double so compared to the other chocolates that you're getting in that little sort of portion control just over a teaspoon here, you're definitely getting two solid teaspoons of sugar, you know. And I think for people who love roast almond and it's delicious, and they really find that satisfying. You know, if you're comparing say the four little pieces of it, about one of those pieces you're supposed to get worth of an almond.
So it's not a huge amount either. I think sometimes when we think there's nuts in chocolate, we think, great, we'll get a served nuts. You'd be lucky to get one or two almonds as part of that, you know, overall chocolate. I think for me, lan if you're someone who doesn't like, for example myself, I would never buy dark chocolate as my soul food after dinner. I just wouldn't. But I would buy an old gold rum and raisin,
which I am a bit partial to. I will admit and have that with a cup of tea and be quite satisfied. So I think, if it means that you're going to have some dark chocolate rather than forty five rows of milk, it's a good choice. But it's not the best, you know, So I think that it's still got some benefit. But absolutely the other two far outweigh nutritionally. If you like them and sort of still get that same level of enjoyment out of them.
I agree, And I think from a marketing perspective, people are probably going to go towards this because they see it labeled as dark choking. You think, well, I'm going to get this because it's better than say the Cabria
milk chocolate. And sure, if we're looking at it, it probably is better nutritionally because you're getting you know, you're getting forty five percent cocoa solids, and you're getting some benefits of the roast almond, although you know, roast overalls only nineteen percent, so in terms of added nuts, you're not getting too much. So I think it more has a
health halo effect to it. So I agree with you choose the one that you like or enjoy the most and the one you're less likely to really overreach on, because I really think portion control. This is still a treat at the end of the day. We can't sugarcoat that it's still a treat. It's still it's still chocolate
at the end of the day. So it's really what you prefer and what you like the most, and you're able to kind of portion size the most because this isn't something that's good for our health necessarily, and we're not really getting any added health benefits. From this one in particular. The other two shore we're getting some added antioxidants, but they're still quite high in saturated fat and sugar overall. So I think I think this one as well. It's
not overly cheap either. It's five dollars for a block of it as well, so I'm probably I think the Aldi one for me, Susie really tops us out today. I think that's probably my favorite one of the three, if you're someone that can actually enjoy eighty five percent cocoa and a lot a lot of people find it too bitter, true.
And I love the portion control. I think the more portion control sweats we have, the better. But you know, companies don't want to portion and control because they want you to eat the block exactly at the end of the day, so there's no real incentive for them. So you know, I think that it's really worth of a discussion, and I think it's also a great opportunity lean to get people aware of the individual portions of saturated fat,
which we don't always speak of. So you know, roughly you've probably got fifteen, maybe twenty grams are saturated fat to play with, and if you want to use a
third of that for your chocolate. Just keep in mind the other food choices do need to be lower saturated fat and also our sugars leanne You know, it's recommended by the World Health Organization that Australian adults consume less than twenty five grams six tea spoons of added sugar into their diet each day, and in the case of the old Gold, that's more than a third of your recommended intake of added sugars that are coming from other foods.
So if you want to do a little quick calculation, it's a good opportunity to see where those slip in and how easy it is to over shoot the mark and have far more than that. So I've loved this discussion because I think it really breaks down those specific amounts of nutrients that you and I calculated in our mind when we're working on meal plans, but for people to be aware of it too and have a bit
of a better look at those labels. But do take your glasses because let's be honestly, and those labels on these chocolate packets are tiny.
Well. I enjoyed our discussion today as well, and I really like that we're getting a nice mix of different products. You know, we shout out to our student Amy, she went to Aldi and she found a good product for us as well today, so we could listen some comparative reviews for you guys as well.
And the other thing we have just spoken about was we sort of debated whether to include sugar free chocolate in this discussion because we know there's quite a few out there that with that everyone loves. And what we've decided is we will do a separate review on the sugar free varieties of chocolate in an upcoming episode.
So stay tuned and don't forget guys. We have our tickets on sale for our Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne podcast live events, so head to our website which is the nutrition coouch dot com and you can purchase tickets for our Bristoin, Sydney and Melbourne events and we can't wait to see you guys.
There and we are going to try to get some dark chocolate in those bags.
So that brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product review for another week. If you guys haven't done so, we would love if you were to subscribe to the podcast leave us a positive review in the Purple Apple Podcast app, and feel free to give us a follow and ask us any questions on our Instagram and Facebook pages. We are at the Nutrition Couch podcast and we all catch you guys next Sunday for our news or latest episode.
Enjoy your chocolate