Q+A about Chocolate

What should I look out for in keto chocolate?
Q: When it comes to keto chocolate what is important to look out for? 
A: The main thing is to check the carbohydrates per 100g column. The reason why is that because the serving size can be manipulated to be quite small to make the numbers look good. 

The second thing is to be wary of a sweetener called Maltitol in the ingredients list. Because your body converts Maltitol into energy, those grams also get counted as a carb. And the grams are substantial. Example: Noshu Sugar free choc baking chips are 7.1g carbs per 100g + 47 g maltitol so this chocolate is 54.1g carbs per 100g or 2.7 days worth of carbs for a Keto'er. So more than half of that chocolate is carbs! 

Ingredients used to make chocolate are important.
Q: What difference does cocoa butter make?
A: In many countries around the world chocolate can only be called chocolate in advertising if it is made with Cocoa Butter. Chocolate products made with vegetable/Palm oil are advertised as confectionery instead of chocolate. This is to preserve traditions dating back centuries and to identify for consumers real chocolate vs mass produced cheaper quality chocolate.

Q: What's the deal with Palm Oil?  
A: Palm oil is a contentious ingredient due to the deforestation to grow the product and recent studies linking it to increased health risks. However for keto it's a rich source of fat for energy. Even Palm Oil farms, while stating they are sustainable, they have still been built on the cleared land removing wildlife habitats. Cadbury had to backtrack and remove Palm Oil from their entire suite of products after a huge global condemnation and boycott by consumers. Palm Oil chocolate it is still around here in NZ with some manufacturers hiding it by labelling it as vegetable oil in ingredient declarations. 

Carbs by brands 
Q: Which brands are the best for Keto Chocolate? 
A: Here's a quick run down of the available brands in NZ with their carb count and what's in them. We have sorted these by Dark, Milk and White. 
We have generously called the Palm Oil confectionery, chocolate :) 
* = available here at the Keto Store 

Dark Chocolate 
* Keto Store Keto Dark Chocolate Chips 2g with cocoa butter 
• Justine's Dark Choc Baking Chips 2.5g with Palm Oil  
* Healtheries Dark Baking Bits 2.7g made with cocoa butter (double check you have the one with no Maltitol) 
• Well Naturally Dark Chocolate 5.4g with cocoa butter 
• Lindt 90% 14g with cocoa butter 
• Lindt 85% 19g with cocoa butter 
• Noshu Sugar free choc baking chips 7.1g + 47 g maltitol, total 54.1g

Milk Chocolate 
• Noshu Sugar free Milk Chocolate melts 6g with cocoa butter
* Vitawerx Milk Protein Chocolate 9.8g with cocoa butter and whey protein isolate
• Well naturally Milk Chocolate 10.4g with cocoa butter
* Healtheries Milk Chocolate Baking Bits 13.6g with cocoa butter

White Chocolate 
• Justine's White Choc Baking Chips 8.5g with palm oil 
* Vitawerx White Protein Chocolate 9.1g with cocoa butter and whey protein isolate
* Healtheries White Chocolate Baking Bits 14.4g with cocoa butter 
• Well Naturally White Chocolate 20.4g with cocoa butter
• Noshu Sugar free white chocolate baking chips 12g + 36g maltitol, total 48g 

Should you have any other questions about Chocolate, please email them to us at KetoStoreNZ@gmail.com and we'll add them in here for the benefit of all.