Dark Chocolate
Food · Fat & Oil · Food, Typed Supps
The higher the cacao percentage, generally the more good compounds and the less sugar.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Melts, releases compounds): Melting in the mouth releases fat, sugar, and flavonoid compounds from the cacao.
- Stomach (Fat & sugar digestion): Fat and sugar digestion begins; flavonoids continue toward the intestine largely intact.
- Small & large intestine (Flavonoids absorbed & fermented): Some flavonoids absorb directly; a significant portion is further processed by gut bacteria into other active compounds.
- Blood vessels (Circulation-related effects): Circulates with effects studied on blood vessel function and blood pressure.
Timing
Higher cacao percentage (70%+) generally means more flavonoids and less added sugar.
Time to effect
- Hours: Circulation-related effects have been measured within hours in some studies.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. May contain: Milk, Soya, Tree nuts. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
64 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — low. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
46.7 kg CO2e and 3402 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Dark chocolate" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Pricey — roughly £14 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 528.2
- Protein: 3.9g
- Carbohydrate: 62.6g
- of which sugars: 52g
- Fat: 30.3g
- of which saturated: 18.4g
- Fibre: 1.2g
- Sodium: 55mg
Food vs. supplement
There isn’t a widely available single “cacao flavonoid” supplement that reliably replicates dark chocolate’s specific compound mixture — this is one case where the food itself, in moderate amounts, is genuinely the more practical source.
Kitchen tip
Look for 70% cacao or higher - the flavanol content that gets the health attention drops off fast in milk chocolate.
Common myth
“All chocolate offers the same benefit.” In reality: Milk chocolate and white chocolate contain far less cacao (and therefore far fewer flavonoids) than dark chocolate with a high cacao percentage.
Recipes that use it
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