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WHITE CHOCOLATE OR DARK CHOCOLATE?

Who doesnt know chocolate? Most people eat chocolate, dont they?
Chocolate has been a popular food around the world for its fine taste. In a
book titled Saving Womens Hearts, its writers, Martha Gulati and Sherry
Torkos, reveal that people are estimated annually to consume 11 pounds (5
kilograms) of chocolate (Gulati & Torkos, 2013, p. 170). There are 3 main
kinds of chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate,
which we can easily find at grocery stores. All of them contain cocoa butter
(a vegetable fat that is derived from the cocoa bean) with different amounts.
Usually, they are eaten as desserts or used in many confectionery products.
Despite of the similarities, dark chocolate and white chocolate are two kinds
of chocolate that have some interesting things to be compared, which are
the ingredients, the health benefits, and the price.
While being produced, white chocolate and dark chocolate have
different ingredients. Beans of cacao, the main ingredients of chocolate, is
processed and broken down into chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa
powder (the non-fat part of the cacao beans). Dark chocolate is produced by
adding small amount of cocoa butter and sugar in to the chocolate liquor and
cocoa powder. Dark chocolate has higher proportion of cocoa beans, as we
can see it from the color of the product which is quiet dark. In contrast, white
chocolate contains only cocoa butter, with lots amount of sugar and milk
solids. There is neither chocolate liquor nor cocoa powder at all in white
chocolate. To support this, Gulati and Torkos say that White chocolate isnt
truly chocolate it is not made with cocoa and does not contain any
flavonoids (Gulati & Torkos, 2013, p. 171). So technically, white chocolate is
not a chocolate at all, as it doesnt contain any cocoa beans.

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The differences of their ingredients affect to the health benefits
between white chocolate and dark chocolate. Cocoa beans contain an
element called flavonoids, which acts as antioxidants. For instance,
flavonoids can prevent body to get some dangerous heart diseases. Gulati
and Torkos state that the antioxidant flavonoids in cocoa help reduce the
risk of clotting and protect the inside lining of arteries that feed the heart.
Cocoa has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol and modestly reduce high
blood pressure (Gulati & Torkos, 2013, p. 171). It is clearly seen that dark
chocolate is good for our hearts as it contains more flavonoids. Moreover,
womenshealthmag.com explains other health benefits of dark chocolate,
some of which are diabetes prevention, weight loss, stress-reliever, sun
protection, higher intelligence, and cough relief. (Women's Health Mag). On
the other hand, white chocolate doesnt have any flavonoids, making it less
nutritious

than

dark

chocolate.

Meanwhile,

Sara

Ipatenco

wrote

in

sfgate.com, While white chocolate contains a good amount of calcium, it

isn't a healthy food because it doesn't supply significant doses of other
essential nutrients to make up for the high calorie, sugar and fat content
(Ipatenco). Furthermore, dark chocolate is a better choice for people who are
in diet program. In contrast, white chocolate has high proportion of sugar
and milk solids, which obviously has many calories in it that can lead
somebody to get obesity or overweight.
Difference of cocoa beans proportion also affects the price. Dark
chocolate contains more cocoa beans, making it longer to be processed,
which costs higher than white chocolate. Moreover, we can see how many
cocoa beans are used in a dark chocolate by seeing at the package. There
are usually a number of percentages, e.g. 35%, 70%, and more. White
chocolate, on the other hand, is usually cheaper as it contains a small
amount of cocoa butter, and the rest is just sugar and milk solids. Sadly,
there are still a lot of people who prefer to buy white chocolate because they

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suppose it is much cheaper yet tastier than the dark one, without knowing or
thinking about the side effects.
As we see the differences between dark chocolate and white chocolate,
Im sure people, from toddlers to grandparents, will keep eating chocolate
because of its delicious taste. Hopefully, people might start to change their
habit to eat more dark chocolate rather than the white one for they have
know the magical benefits of dark chocolate after reading this. There is
nothing that can hold us to eat chocolate. Its popularity makes us want to eat
it and eat it again. But most of all, eat it in a right amount, and enjoy it.