Love Dark Chocolate - Perhaps

Dark Chocolate, photo by Lee E. Kellogg

Last month the scary news about heavy metals in dark chocolate appeared on NPR and other news sources. Lead and Cadmium are found beyond what is considered safe limits in dark chocolate.

Lead comes from the dust that sticks to the cacao fruit as it is drying on the ground. Lead gets in the dust from the exhaust of combustion engines that are burning leaded fuel. Most countries where cacao is grown still burn leaded gas.

Cadmium is leached from the soil by the plants and then stored in the fruits. It could be removed in the processing of the chocolate but isn’t.

So what is a dark chocolate loving gal to do? Let your favorite chocolate company know that you are concerned about the levels of harmful metals in your chocolate. Meantime, support companies that have chocolate that have much lower levels of harmful heavy metals.

Ghirardelli 86% and 72%, Valrhona 85%, Taza 70%  and Mast organic 80% have the lowest levels of lead and cadmium. I have not looked at these chocolates in the store, I am always in search of chocolate that has no soy and minimal ingredients.

The link is for the Consumer Reports article about the heavy metals in chocolate. The advice to eat milk chocolate because it contains less metals is a bit skewed as we need to reduce our sugar consumption. enjoy your dark chocolate, there are still some good benefits, but limit the amount you eat to less than one ounce a day.