Chocolate facts and figures.....

Chocolate – it’s rare that a fitness business dedicates a blog topic to this gooey goodness but alas, it’s Easter and what better time to dissect the intricacies of our favourite treat!

Aussies love chocolate – so much so that the industry is worth $3 billion in Australia and is projected to grow to $4.3 billion by 2023! We can’t get enough of it, more specifically, one brand in particular – who can guess????

Drumroll please………..You guessed it - Cadbury Dairy Milk rules the roost! Yep this Aussie classic with a glass and a half of full cream milk is our go-to choice, with the 50g bar being the crowd favourite! Did you know there are 37 varieties of Cadbury dairy milk blocks currently available on our shelves? How many have you tried?

Unsurprisingly, Easter is the busiest time of year for Cadbury. They produce 477 million eggs and 14.6 million bunnies for the holiday period!

Now if you’re anything like me, I can’t resist white chocolate! It’s been my favourite since I was a kid and the Easter Bunny knew me well, always delivering the goods! So what is the difference between milk, dark and white chocolate?

“The different combinations of the cocoa solids and cocoa butter with other ingredients give the multiple types of chocolate. Dark chocolate has the highest percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter of all types. The other added ingredients are sugar and cocoa bean powder. Milk chocolate contains milk powder, sugar, and a small percentage of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. It is the addition of milk powder and the lowering of cocoa in milk chocolate that gives it a creamier and sweeter taste. As for white chocolate, it doesn’t contain cocoa solids at all, only sugar, milk, and also a small quantity of cocoa butter. Dark chocolate contains a minimum of 70% cocoa versus a maximum of 35% in white chocolate.” (https://www.crystalchocolatier.com/what-are-differences-between-dark-chocolate-white-chocolate-and-milk-chocolate).

So when you see the break down of ingredients, it's pretty clear that dark chocolate is the "healthiest" option. Like other foods, the more products that are added (like sugar and milk in white and milk chocolates), the less nutritious is becomes. Sadly for me, I love the least healthiest option, luckily I don’t have it too often…… 😊

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So what is it about chocolate that makes us love it so much? Well here's a few facts:

• Chocolate helps the body generate seratonin and dopamine. These neurotransmitters are our "feel good" hormones and consequently help regulate mood - they make us feel happy! Now apparently this is why women crave chocolate at certain stages of our cycle - we're tyring to moderate our raging hormones!!
• We love the melt-in-your-mouth texture of chocolate. It satisfies our sweet tooth and gives us a wonderful memory to hold on to for next time we eat it......
• If we let the chocolate melt slowly in our mouths, it increases heart rate and brain activity as much as a passionate kiss does - only it lasts 4 times longer according to science!
• Chocolate also contains another feel good chemical called anandamide (found naturally in the brain). This is normally broken down quite quickly after its produced, however scientists believe anandamide in chocolate takes longer to break down, giving us a longer 'chocolate high'.
• Basically we love everything about the taste, smell and texture of chocolate!

Well that definitley explains a few things...……

We hope you all had a fantastic Easter and enjoyed our fun read on chocolate!