By Thomas Wong
What really goes into making one of these bite sized (or not so bite sized) treats? Here are four ingredients that are in every chocolate bar:
Milk Chocolate
Yes, there’s milk and chocolate here, but there’s also a lot of sugar! Most regular sized bars contain between 20 to 30 grams of sugar. Most health experts say that 40 grams of sugar is the recommended daily limit.
Vegetable Oil
Most vegetable oils are extracted from the oil palm tree because it’s cheap. This ingredient gives the chocolate bar a soft or smooth texture, but it also adds high amounts of saturated fats.
Soy Lecithin
This is made from soybean oil and acts like a glue. It keeps everything in the chocolate bar stuck together.
Artificial Flavours
It’s a little scary that companies do not have to specify what is used to create the artificial flavouring in their products. In some cases, like in strawberry flavouring, over 50 different chemicals could have gone into its creation. For all we know, deep fried bug brains could be the artificial flavoring in our chocolate!
Chocolate bars have little to no nutritional value, but like all candy, they are really designed just to taste good. So enjoy your treats, but go easy on the chocolate.