The taste of chocolate is rich and exquisite and it’s something practically everyone around the world loves. But for some reasons, you may need to cut down on your chocolate intake. This is the case, for example, if you are following the ketogenic diet.
But does this mean that you need to cut down on all chocolate altogether? In this article, we briefly explore what the keto diet is and then delve into what chocolate you actually can consume while on the diet. Ready to find out more? Let’s get started!
What is a keto diet?
The ketogenic or keto diet is often embarked on by people who are overweight, who have diabetes, or who would like to improve their metabolic health.
Although there are several types of keto diets, the standard one allows you approximately 5% of carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 75% fat on average per day.
In total, this means your average diet will contain around 2,000 calories per day. Translated into carbs, this means eating only around 25 grams per day.
Is it OK to eat chocolate on a ketogenic diet?
One of the most common questions that a person embarking on a keto diet asks is can you eat dark chocolate on a keto diet? The short answer is that it depends on the type of chocolate you consume.
The reason behind this is the ingredients that go into making the different types of chocolate.
For example, white chocolate has hardly any cocoa solids and more milk and sugar. Milk chocolate will have a higher percentage of cocoa solids but will still contain milk and sugar.
Finally, there’s dark chocolate. Although the quality will vary from chocolate to chocolate, you can be sure that most dark chocolate will contain up to or over 70% cocoa solids, which is not only much lower on carbs when compared to milk and white chocolate, but it also has great health effects, too.
Examples of this include antioxidant properties in addition to others.
Which chocolate is best on keto?
Having mentioned that white and milk chocolate contain higher amounts of sugar and milk and lower amounts of cocoa solids, you are dealing with a high-carb situation, which is not ideal on a keto diet.
However, for those wondering if dark chocolate is keto-friendly, the answer would be a yes with a caveat.
By consuming small quantities of dark chocolate on a keto diet, you can proceed to enjoy this dark and delicious chocolate treat. It is rich in vitamin and mineral content, catechins, antioxidants, flavanols, plant compounds, etc.
All this can help protect against cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, help encourage healthy arteries, and others.
Therefore, keto-friendly dark chocolate will be the lowest carb chocolate and should be made from 100% cocoa solids. Such dark chocolate bars generally contain only around 8% carbs, which means that a 28-gram portion of this chocolate will introduce around 2 grams of carbs into your daily diet.
But if you can’t find 100% cocoa solids dark chocolate – which can taste quite bitter – you can still opt for dark chocolate with a cocoa solids content that is 70% and higher.
Dark chocolate carb content
If you’re lucky enough to find dark chocolate that contains 100% cocoa solids, that’s great for your keto diet because it means that around four squares of this chocolate will result in only 2 grams of carbs being introduced into your diet.
However, a standard 28-gram portion of dark chocolate contains approximately 12.5 grams of carbs. This means that the lower the cocoa solids in the dark chocolate the higher the amount of carbs you will be consuming.
As such, this will mean that you will need to carefully monitor your carb intake so that your body remains in a state of ketosis and that you end up burning fat for energy as the diet is intended to do.
As for the rest of the sweets and candies out there, these are high in carbs and should be avoided on a keto diet.
In short, therefore, dark chocolate is suitable for a keto diet and the higher the cocoa solids content it contains, the better for you and your adherence to your diet.
Wrapping up
If you or someone you know is following a keto diet, it’s worth ensuring that you respect their efforts and give them a thoughtful gift of dark chocolate as opposed to milk or white chocolate.
And in order to make your gift even more memorable, you should definitely try Totally Chocolate’s personalized chocolate bars for dark chocolate.
With special messages that you can engrave on the chocolate, your gift will stand out from the rest and it will also be a thoughtful and respectful gift that the recipient will absolutely love.
Simply browse our selection of dark chocolate and indulge your senses in all the options we have available.
