You may think that because you are diabetic, chocolate is no longer on the menu for you. The good news is that nothing can be farther from the truth. The key to finding the right chocolate for diabetics involves looking carefully at the list of ingredients and making sure that you are not eating anything that is not on a proper list of foods for diabetics. In fact, choosing the right diabetic chocolates can even help to benefit those who have diabetes.
Eating Chocolate Benefits Diabetics
Cocoa powder and dark chocolate contain several compounds that help to promote good health in the body. These compounds help to lower blood pressure levels naturally, relax blood vessels, and even lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. This is an important concern for diabetics, as they have a raised risk of developing cardiovascular disease than the general population. There have even been preliminary studies that indicate that regular consumption of dark chocolate helps to improve insulin response.
The health benefits of chocolate come from the high levels of antioxidants that they contain, specifically flavonols, a subset of flavonoids. These are the same compounds that are given credit for the health benefits of tea, grapefruit, and wine.
Choosing The Right Diabetic Chocolate
When you are diabetic, chocolate bars that you tend to find at the checkout line and in the convenience store are some of the poorest choices you can make. While the high fat content slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, they are still filled with sugar. If you are serious about keeping your blood sugar levels normal, you need to look elsewhere for your chocolate fix.
The best diabetic chocolate tends to be of a more upscale, gourmet variety that has a much higher concentration of cocoa solids without any of the added sugar. Many of the more mainstream chocolates that are advertised as being sugar free instead contain a great deal of artificial sweeteners, specifically sugar alcohols. The problem with consuming many of these when you are diabetic is that they can still stimulate a blood sugar response. This is the same reason that you choose diabetic snacks that are very low in sugar, such as jerky, nuts, and now high-quality chocolate.
Look carefully at the ingredient list before you purchase any diabetic chocolate. Cocoa powder should always be the first ingredient. While a bit of sugar or sugar alcohol is okay, excess amounts can be unhealthy. You definitely want it to be much farther down the list, and not exceed 10g per serving.
You do not have to believe that because you have diabetes, chocolate is going to be forever out of your reach. This does not have to be the case, as chocolate is filled with a variety of healthy compounds that promote good health in not only diabetics, but the general population. Still, even the best chocolate is high in calories, so it is important to not overindulge.
