Scientists Discover a Way to Make Chocolates Healthier

Sharon Moore March 26, 2015

Very few people hate chocolate. It’s sweet, slightly bitter taste, enchanting aroma, and melt-in-your-mouth texture are things to die for. But most chocolate products available these days are very high in sugar and are less healthy than pure cocoa. But don’t worry, soon, there will be a way to make chocolates healthier and even more delicious than they currently are.

Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, has long been regarded as a superfood. Studies have shown that chocolates contain antioxidants that may boost heart health and brainpower, and promote mental health. They also contain key compounds that can help us feel more awake and focused.

Now, researchers from the University of Ghana, led by Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, Ph.D., found that adding another step to the process of transforming cocoa beans into chocolate may help boost not only its flavour, but more importantly its nutritional benefits.

Currently, the process used by chocolate manufacturers involve roasting cocoa beans. However, during the roasting period, the beans lose some of their health- and heart-friendly antioxidants.

For the study, Afoakwa and his team stored the cocoa pods before fermenting and roasting them to produce chocolates. They hypothesised that such additional step may help retain some of the nutrients that are somehow lost during the fermenting and roasting process.

In the experiment, the first group of pods underwent the traditional process for making chocolate. The three remaining groups of pods were stored, a process called “pulp preconditioning”, for three, seven, and 10 days respectively, before going through the traditional process of fermentation and drying.

Researchers then tested the levels of antioxidants in all the chocolate groups.

They found that the group of pods that were stored 10 days contained more antioxidants than any other group after roasting.

Another alteration made in the process by the researchers is the slowly roasting of the cocoa beans. They found that a slower roasting and at a lower temperature (45 minutes at 242 degrees Fahrenheit), resulted to beans that have more antioxidant levels than roasting it in a traditional manner.

Surprisingly, the addition of the two processes also improved the flavour of chocolates. The researchers believed that pulp reconditioning probably enabled the sweet pulp that surrounds the beans to enter the pods before the fermentation process, resulting to better and richer flavour.

These interesting findings were presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Source of this article: Chocolate May Soon Be Healthier And More Delicious