Much like regular ice cream, milk chocolate, too, is one of the most loved American dessert treats. But quite unlike dark chocolate, milk chocolate contains ingredients that make it an unhealthy food choice. Though easier to find and certainly much cheaper than its healthier dark chocolate counterpart, milk chocolate should be avoided if you want to reach your health and wellness goals.
Read further and discover more about the negative effects of milk chocolate and why the Superhuman Food Pyramid recommends you avoid this source of dietary fats.
Milk Chocolate’s Risks:
In the US, manufacturers are only required to put 10% pure cocoa liquor into the milk chocolate product. You’d then be left to wonder what the other 90% of the ingredients are. Just as its name implies, this mass produced sweet treat contains a high percentage of milk powder, condensed milk, or liquid milk, all of which are non-organic dairy products.
Practically all milk chocolate brands contain hydrogenated oils as well, added as a filler as well as a preservative. Hydrogenated fats are trans fats, which have been linked to increased risk for a host of lifestyle illnesses like coronary heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
As if this is not alarming enough, these hydrogenated fats come mostly from unhealthy soy bean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, safflower oil, or cottonseed oil. These vegetable oils have a significantly high omega-6 fatty acid and very little omega-3 fatty acid content, which makes milk chocolate consumption unsafe for those with existing inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
Save for sunflower oil, said vegetable oils all come from genetically modified crops as well. The debate about the beneficial and harmful effects of these bioengineered organisms on human health still rages on. But those who would like to err on the side of caution may want to steer clear of any GM-containing milk chocolate as animal studies show GMO consumption may bring about allergies, gastrointestinal maladies, and scarier still, reproductive health abnormalities like decreased semen production in male rats and sterility in the offspring of female rats fed long-term with GM crops.
Milk chocolate contains considerable amounts of sweeteners like processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup as well. Excessive consumption of these sweeteners may bring about tooth decay and serious illnesses like insulin resistance which could then lead to diabetes. High fructose corn syrup has also been linked to gastrointestinal maladies, headaches, hyperactivity, and decreased mental acuity. Low- or no-calorie versions of milk chocolate, meanwhile, contain unhealthy sugar substitutes like aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame, which to this day have not been thoroughly studied for their long-term impact on human health.
A concoction of chemicals are contained in milk chocolate brands as well. Take for instance caramel coloring which contains compounds that cause cancer in rats and have been identified by the US National Toxicology Program as possibly carcinogenic to humans. Milk chocolate brands coated in colorful shells contain food dyes that are linked to hyperactivity in children, formation of tumors in the kidneys and adrenal glands, and cancer of the brain as well. Butyric acid, a compound that renders that characteristic sour taste in some milk chocolate brands, is added as well. Butyric acid is classified as a toxic substance by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and ingestion of this compound may bring about abdominal pain, and in serious cases, shock and collapse.
Here is a complete listing of the dietary sources of fats on the Superhuman Food Pyramid:
Eat:
- Coconut Oil
- Coconut Meat
- Olive Oil
- Macadamia Nut Oil
- Avocados
- Olives
- Organic Grass-Fed Butter
- Organic Yogurt (Full-Fat)
- Ghee
- Free Range Eggs (With Yolk)
- Grass-Fed Beef, Bison, or Buffalo or Lamb
- Sardines, Anchovies or Haddock in Water or Olive Oil
- Wild Salmon, Trout, Tilapia, Flounder
- Triglyceride-Based Fish Oil
- Pure Cod Liver Oil
Moderate:
- Raw Nuts (Except Peanuts)
- Raw Seeds
- Almond Butter
- Palm Oil
- Cold Press Flax Oil
- Bacon
- Mayonnaise
- Organic Peanut Butter
- Coconut Ice Cream
- Dark Chocolate
Avoid:
- Roasted Nuts
- Roasted Seeds
- Regular Peanut Butter
- Regular Butter
- Non-Organic Meats
- Margarine
- Any ‘Spreadable’ Condiments
- Farmed Fish
- Commercial Salad Dressings
- Safflower Oil
- Sunflower Oil
- Canola Oil
- Cottonseed Oil
- Commercial Flax Oil
- Soy Ice Cream
- Regular Ice Cream
- Milk Chocolate
If you have questions, comments or feedback about the negative effects of milk chocolate, the Superhuman Food Pyramid, this website, or other aspects of Becoming Superhuman, then leave your thoughts below, as well as any tips you have on the negative effects of milk chocolate.
Author Bio: Ben Greenfield
His credentials include:
Bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology
Personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
Sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN)
Advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta, the “Harvard” of bicycle fitting schools
Over 10 years experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports
Ben hosts the highly popular fitness, nutrition and wellness website at http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com, which features blogs, podcasts, and product reviews from Ben. He is a frequent contributor to Triathlete magazine and LAVA magazine, Endurance Planet (http://www.enduranceplanet.com), the outdoor sports magazine OutThere Monthly and has been featured in WebMD, the Spokesman-Review, Inlander magazine, In-Health magazine, Fit-Pro magazine, PTontheNet, Prevention magazine, Women’s Running magazine, and Inside Triathlon magazine.
As a public speaker on fitness, nutrition, and training, Ben hosts one of the top ranked fitness podcasts in iTunes, the Get-Fit Guy (http://www.GetFitGuy.com), and has been a keynote lecturer at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships Medical Conference, the Coeur D’ Alene Ironman Medical Conference, USAT Art & Science of Coaching Symposium, Can-Fit-Pro Conference, Pilgrim’s Wellness Center Education Series, Fleet Feet Sports Endurance Sports Clinic and REI Nutrition Clinic. He sits on the board of directors for Tri-Fusion triathlon team, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and is the official coach for the YoungTri. As a triathlon coach and competitor, Ben competes at Ironman and Half-Ironman World Championships, holds a ranking as of USAT’s top ranked age grouper triathletes, and competes in 15-20 triathlons each year, both nationally and internationally.
