Low Sugar Chocolate - What is Stevia and Why Coconut Sugar?
Blog post by Lindsay Mustard, Holistic Nutritionist
Dark chocolate gets a pretty good rap. It is rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids that are linked to boosting our mood, libedo and levels of focus. What no one talks about is the difference between dark chocolate brands. In most cases, it comes down to the sugar content! Overtime, we’ve become used to hearing the saying, “dark chocolate is good for you.” So naturally we pick up any bar labelled” dark chocolate” and head to the checkout counter. Little do we know that that bar might as well be a candybar with the amount of sugar it contains! In this blog post, we are going to be breaking down the different types of sugars, the difference between dark chocolate bars and highlighting the benefits of using stevia as a sugar free alternative. You won’t look at all of the dark chocolate bars on the store shelves in the same way again! You’ll be reaching for a Zazubean Sugar-free Dark Chocolate Bar again and again because you trust the ingredients and love the way your body feels with less sugar in it!
Let’s start with a quick comparison. Say you pick up your favourite brand of chocolate, the average bar size is 100 grams with a serving size being roughly 40 grams. Any guesses how many grams of sugar are in the whole bar? Try a whopping 37-40 grams of sugar! Most people will consume a full chocolate bar in one sitting because of the combination of the creamy melt in your mouth feel, the fat and the sugar trio that leads them to wanting more. While the dark chocolate version is better than their milk chocolate bar which contains between 50-60 grams of sugar, less is more in this case. Now pick up a Sugar-Free Zazubean Dark Chocolate Bar. The Buff bar containing 90% cacao packs as little as 7 grams of sugar for the entire bar! That is roughly one fifth of the amount of sugar compared to the other brands. Take it up a notch with their Slinky Super Dark Panama Chocolate Bar and you won’t be able to find a single gram of sugar in it. Now before you go racing to the store to eat 4 bars of it because of its lack of sugar, let’s talk about what makes it sweet without containing sugar.
Zazubean has been a passionate chocolate making company for years that strides to source the highest quality cacao and ingredients. Over the years, the demand for sugar-free dark chocolate was becoming more frequent and regularly requested by their customers. So they took to the kitchen to create healthy and sustainably sourced dark chocolate. The Slinky line was introduced shortly after. The slinky bars contain a special superfood ingredient called stevia. The stevia plant has been used for more than 1500 years by the individuals of Guarani in Brazil and Paraguay. They call it the “sweet herb.” Stevia is a sugar-free, zero calorie plant based extract that is almost 200 times sweeter than sugar. A little goes a long way when it comes to stevia and its potency. Our bodies process stevia in a unique way which allows it to be a calorie-free solution. As our bodies process the sweetener, the stevia leaf extract passes through our digestive tract without being broken down for calories. This is far different from the way that we process sugar which involves a more complicated process in which the sugars are absorbed into our bloodstream. What does this mean? We can make our cake and eat it too, as long as it's made with stevia to keep our blood sugar levels in check!
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the average Canadian consumes “110 grams of sugar per day, the equivalent to approximately 26 teaspoons or 21 percent of total energy intake, based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet.” High sugar intake has been linked to weight gain, blood sugar issues, high blood sugar, fatigue, irritability, increased hunger and weight gain, acne and joint pain. If that doesn’t strike fear in you, than we don’t know what does! Sugar is a variable that we can control. We can choose alternatives that have a lower glycemic index, sugar load or better yet, are sugar free in their entirety!
Zazubean knows that it is impossible to live without chocolate, nor should you! Its benefits are too good to pass up! That is why they have created Sugar-Free, Vegan and Kosher Dark Chocolate Bars in addition to their dark chocolate line up made with coconut sugar. Coconut sugar, another plant-based, anti-inflammatory sweetener, has a low-glycemic index, meaning our bodies absorb the sugars at a slower rate. It is also rich in amino acids that help to support our metabolism, B Vitamins, and is rich in various vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium and potassium.
The next time that you are craving dark chocolate, take a second to flip the bar over. Read the ingredient list, the nutritional information and look for the symbols “non-GMO,” “Fair Trade” and “Vegan.” Ideally choose a bar that contains as little as sugar as possible. Regardless of the Zazubean Dark Chocolate bar that you choose, you know you are choosing the highest quality and lowest sugar offering on the market. Now that is a sweet, sweet taste!