The Truth About Real Chocolate

REAL Dark Chocolate is what you’ll find covering NuGo Dark and NuGo Organic bars. It’s made from a cocao bean, which we use because it’s an antioxidant with cholesterol-lowering benefits. The way chocolate is made impacts its nutritional benefits and its flavor, which is why NuGo feels a responsibility to educate our eaters.

Real Chocolate
Recent debates among candy-making giants have raised questions about the industry standards for chocolate. The purists, like those at NuGo Nutrition, believe REAL chocolate is made of three simple ingredients: unsweetened chocolate, sugar, and cocoa butter.

Taste and Health Benefits of Real Chocolate
Chocolate is made of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. Cocoa butter, the natural source of fat in REAL Dark Chocolate, is responsible for its smooth, creamy texture.  Cocoa butter does not counteract the cholesterol lowering benefits of the cocoa bean – it is a neutral fat.

Cocoa butter melts at body temperature, giving REAL chocolate its rich, creamy, melts-in-your-mouth texture. The natural fat in chocolate, cocoa butter, is comprised of equal amounts of oleic acid (a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat also found in olive oil), stearic and palmitic acids. Stearic acid does not raise LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) as do most saturated fats. Stearic acid is converted in the liver to oleic acid, a heart healthy, monounsaturated fat. Few other fats are this heart-healthy.

Cocoa butter is temperature sensitive.  Making and transporting REAL Dark Chocolate requires expertise and extra costs associated with climate controlled distribution.

Chocolate-Flavored Imitations
Many companies, including most nutrition companies, substitute cocoa butter with vegetable fats (usually palm kernel oil).  They coat their bars using inferior ingredients to save money or because they simply lack the expertise to produce real dark chocolate. Vegetable fats are unhealthy saturated fats that raise your bad cholesterol, outweighing the natural benefits of the cocoa bean. In addition, vegetable fat coatings have a waxy consistency and overly sweet taste.

Studies show that palm kernel oil raises bad cholesterol. This means that replacing the neutral fat cocoa butter with palm kernel oil cancels out the cholesterol-lowering benefits found in the non-fat cocoa solids.

The Downside of Chocolate-Flavored Products
Most nutrition companies, substitute vegetable fats (usually palm kernel oil) for cocoa butter in order to save money and time, and to extend the shelf life of their products. Real chocolate must be tempered, and tempering takes time, costs money, and requires expertise.

The chocolate-flavored vegetable fat coatings may save manufacturers time and money, but these waxy chocolate knock-offs are no match for real, delicious chocolate.

Distinguishing Between Real Chocolate and Chocolate Flavor
To date, the FDA has not mandated a standard of identity for REAL Dark Chocolate. This means companies using alternative vegetable fat coatings instead of REAL Dark Chocolate can mislead consumers when they label a flavor “dark chocolate,” even though it does not contain the health benefits or taste of REAL Dark Chocolate.

If you want to be sure you are eating the best tasting and healthiest chocolate on earth, check your labels; if the ingredients include alternative vegetable fats (palm oil, palm kernel oil, cottonseed oil, etc.), then it is not real dark chocolate. If it’s a NuGo, you’ll know it’s made with REAL Dark Chocolate.

NuGo Guarantees that our Dark Chocolate Products are Made with REAL Dark Chocolate.