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Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Top 30 Lower Sugar Chocolate Bars UK

With so much being written about the bad effects of sugar on our health, many of us are actively looking to reduce our sugar consumption. This often means cutting down on sweet treats such as chocolate.
Divine 85 percent dark chocolate bar
But, not all chocolate is bad. In fact, chocolate, or pure cacao, is full of nutrients. For example, it contains magnesium, some B vitamins, iron and flavonoids which are potent antioxidants. It’s even advised that we eat one to two squares of chocolate each day for its health benefits.

If you’re looking for a chocolate that’s healthy, then you need to search out those which are low in sugar! Yes, they do exist. However, you’ll need to head away from the ‘milk’ variety and head towards the Dark Side.

For a product to be classed as low sugar, it should have no more than 5g of sugar per 100g of product or no more than 5% sugar per 100g. And when it comes to chocolate, they’re not easy to find. This is because most chocolate is sweetened with lots of sugar since cacao, on its own, is very bitter.

By going completely sugar free for a few weeks, you can reset your taste buds and will find that ‘normal’ chocolate is unpalatably sweet.

When looking for a low sugar chocolate, search for those that have the highest cocoa or cacao content. Ideally anything over 70% as these will have the lowest sugar content.

I’ve put together a list of 30 dark chocolate bars which have a lower sugar content. Only the first four can be classed as 'low sugar' as they have 5% or less sugar. The rest are in order of increasing sugar content and are colour coded.

Those in green are low sugar, those in orange are medium sugar and the rest are high, coloured in red. Note that even the higher sugar varieties listed are substantially lower in sugar than the majority of chocolate bars on sale in the UK.

When it comes to calories, there isn't a lot of difference between high and low sugar chocolates. Most chocolate bars have at least 500 calories per 100g.

You can find the following selection in health food stores and supermarkets.

I’ve only included plain chocolate, not those mixed with fruit or other flavours, and not those sweetened with artificial sweeteners.

30 Lower Sugar Dark Chocolate Bars


Chocolate Brand
% Sugar
1
Montezuma’s Absolute Black 100%
<0.5%
2
Vivani 99% cacao organic dark
0.5%
3
Willie's Cacao Pure 100% Gold Sur del Lago Cacao
0.6%
4
Lindt Excellence 99%
1%
5
Lindt Excellence 90% Dark Supreme Chocolate Bar
7%
6
Vivani Organic 92% coconut blossom dark chocolate
7%
7
Waitrose Dominican Republic Dark Chocolate 90%
9%
8
Sainsbury's 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate, Taste the Difference
10.4%
9
Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate
11%
10
Conscious Organic Raw Chocolate 85%
12.2%
11
Tesco Finest Swiss 85% Dark Chocolate
12.9%
12
Willie's Cacao Colombian Gold Dark Chocolate 88%
13.5%
13
Green & Black's 85% Dark
13.5%
14
Divine 85% Dark Chocolate
13.7%
15
Waitrose Haiti 85%
14%
16
Aldi Moser Roth 85% Dark Chocolate
14%
17
Vivani 85% organic dark chocolate
14%
18
Tesco 85% Cocoa Ivory Coast & Ecuadorian
15%
19
Morrisons The Best 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate
16.4%
20
M&S Intense 85% Dark Chocolate
17.2%
21
ASDA Heidi 85% Dark Chocolate Bar
18.4%
22
C&L 80% Extra Dark Chocolate
19%
23
RAW Health Organic Extreme Dark Chocolate
21%
24
Ritter Sport Extra Fine 73% Dark Chocolate
23%
25
RAW HALO
23%
26
Waitrose PERU Dark Chocolate
24%
27
Waitrose Costa Rican Dark Chocolate
24%
28
Montezuma's Dark Chocolate Bar
25%
29
OMBAR Organic Raw 72% chocolate
25%
30
Sainsbury's Belgian Fairtrade Dark Chocolate, Taste the Difference
25.3%




Divine 85 percent dark chocolate bar
Divine 85% Dark Chocolate
Lindt 99 percent dark chocolate
Lindt Excellence 99% Dark





















Sainsburys Belgian taste difference dark chocolate
Sainsbury's Belgian 72% Dark
Waitrose Dominican Republic dark chocolate bar
Waitrose Dominican Republic Dark





















Green & Blacks Dark 85% organic dark chocolate
Green & Black's Organic 85% Dark
VIvani 99 percent cacao dark chocolate bar
Vivani 99% Cacao Dark Chocolate





















Conscious Organic raw dark chocolate
Conscious Organic Raw 85%
Montezumas absolute black 100% cocoa chocolate bar
Montezuma's 100% Cocoa Dark























OMBAR raw cacao organic 72% dark chocolate bar
OMBAR 72% Raw Cacao Dark
Waitrose Haiti  dark chocolate
Waitrose Haiti 85% Dark Chocolate




















Vivani 92% organic dark chocolate bar
Vivani 92% Cacao Dark Chocolate 
Vivani 85% organic dark chocolate bar
Vivani 85% Cacao Dark Chocolate






















Tesco 85% cocoa Ivory Coast & Ecuadorian plain chocolate bar
Tesco 85% Cocoa Plain Chocolate
Lindt Excellence 90% dark chocolate bar
Lindt Excellence 90% Cocoa Dark





















M&S 85% Intense dark chocolate bar
M&S Intense Dark Chocolate 85%
Tesco finest Swiss 85% dark chocolate bar
Tesco Finest Swiss 85% Dark





















Willies Pure 100 gold dark chocolate low sugar
Willie's Cacao Pure 100% Gold Chocolate


These days we’re lucky to have so much choice when it comes to chocolate. I remember when one of the few options for dark chocolate lovers was the popular Cadburys Bournville Classic Dark Chocolate bar. But even this has very high in sugar content with 57.7% sugar per 100g.

Cadbury Bourneville classic dark chocolate bar
Cadbury Bourneville Classic Dark Chocolate Bar

Here are some health benefits of dark chocolate - click here.

The good thing about low sugar dark chocolate, is that you really only need a couple of squares to satisfy a chocolate craving. It’s a great way of adding to your antioxidant needs and friendly on the waistline as long as you don’t eat the whole bar – but that would be really difficult!

Related Posts:

If you love Cadbury's chocolate here is a complete guide to Cadbury's chocolates - calories and sugar content.


© Diets and Calories

2 comments:

  1. I love Montezuma's.
    Sainsbury's do their own artificially sweetened, and both Tesco and Morrison's sell "Chocologic"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, there are some lower sugar varieties that are sweetened artificially but I decided to stick with the 'natural' ones for this post. However I do have a bar of Chocologic right here ready for review!!!

      Delete