Cocoa liquid block: The paste obtained from cocoa beans after fermentation, drying, baking, shelling, alkalization (non alkalization) treatment, and grinding is called cocoa liquid block or cocoa paste. Cocoa butter: After pressure treatment, cocoa butter, an edible yellowish fat, is separated from the cocoa liquid. It is mainly composed of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids. Cocoa powder: The remaining solid portion of the pressed cocoa liquid is dried to obtain cocoa powder. The three are not at the same level of processing, and they all exist in the form of mixtures. Commodities are generally described in terms of cocoa solids content, without separate scales.
Generally speaking, in addition to using cocoa liquid blocks, dark chocolate products will also be added with cocoa butter to make the chocolate taste smoother and more palatable, while facilitating the grinding and refining of chocolate. In product labeling, additional cocoa butter may or may not be included in the cocoa solids content, so products typically use the ≥ sign instead of indicating a specific percentage. Some chocolate products will add cocoa powder, such as truffle chocolate, but the proportion of cocoa powder used will not be clearly marked, which can also be ignored. A healthy diet requires diversity and balance. Simply discussing what kind of chocolate to eat is healthier doesn't make much sense, after all, it's just a snack. "Your intake is mainly fat and carbohydrates, and the other nutrients contained therein have minimal impact on your health.". If you eat cocoa powder that has not been alkalized, you can consume more nutrients and biologically active ingredients.
2. Study on the health value of cocoa? Diet intervention and disease prevention are hot research directions, and cocoa intervention in diseases is mainly among cardiovascular diseases. The main active ingredient in cocoa research is flavanol.
The results of research conducted so far indicate that consuming cocoa, especially in the form of dark chocolate with high flavonoid content, may be a good strategy for reducing cardiovascular risk, as it has beneficial effects on inhibiting platelet aggregation, reducing blood pressure, reducing dyslipidemia, and reducing plasma glucose concentration. Many studies have shown that flavonoids in dark chocolate have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and also play an important role in preventing insulin resistance.
However, the experimenters did not use commercial chocolate in their studies, but instead changed the formula to meet the intake dose of flavanols in the study population, and the duration of most studies ranged from 2 to 8 weeks. The consumption of commercial chocolate is not applicable to the conclusions obtained from the experiment,
1. When you consume flavanols, you may also consume more sugar, fat, or food additives.
2. In order to ensure the taste of the product, the cocoa liquid block will undergo alkalization treatment during the production process to reduce the sour and bitter taste, but the content of flavanols in the alkalized cocoa liquid block will also be correspondingly reduced. Therefore, cocoa liquid can be separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter, but we do not know the specific proportion of cocoa powder and cocoa butter in commercial chocolate, which is collectively referred to as the content of cocoa solids. Cocoa powder contains higher levels of flavonoids, which have been shown to have cardiovascular benefits. However, based on the amount of snacks consumed, the health impact of flavonoids contained in cocoa powder is negligible, and you also consume more fat or sugar.