Healthy Chocolate Hall of Fame

Today’s guest post comes from Lauren Slayton, the author of The Little Book of Thin and creator of the Foodtrainers blog.

I have good news, especially with Valentine’s Day coming up! You don’t have to cut chocolate in order to be fit and healthy. There are many ways to have a guilt-free chocolate fix. We spend a couple of weeks at Foodtrainers testing various chocolate treats (tough work I know) in order to come up with our best of the best or Healthy Chocolate Hall of Fame. Not only are these options OK to eat, I’d say they’re encouraged – just try not to enjoy more than one a day.

Breakfast Chocolate

How about a chocolate “milkshake” for breakfast? Protein powders have come a long way.

Tera’s makes great, organic, dark chocolate Whey Protein powders, Philosophie Cacao magic combines cacao nibs, chia, hemp and more, and Sunwarrior has a great pea and hemp based vegan protein powder. You can mix any of these with unsweetened almond milk, ice and organic fruit or greens for a healthy snack.

Chocolate also pairs well with hot cereal. Earnest Eats makes oatmeal cups with oats and quinoa, cocoa and pumpkin seeds. Or you can DIY with cacao nibs and any other toppings (walnuts, unsweetened coconut etc.) sprinkled on oatmeal.

Immunity Chocolate

I am not a fan of many of the gummy, sweet vitamins (food dyes in the name of health? No thanks). I do like these Dark Chocolate Probiotic Hearts from Sunbiotics because the ingredients are top notch. One a day may keep that winter cold away (I’ve been know to have two or three a day).

Four sigma is another innovative company. Their immune boosting chocolate shots are perfect on a cold day. And they’re gluten free, paleo and vegan.

Portioned Chocolate

A little bit of high quality, dark (>60%) chocolate is great. A large bar in one sitting? Not so much. If you tend to have “just one more row” with chocolate try NibMor’s Daily Dose of Dark. Each individually wrapped square provides .35 oz. of dark chocolate, the perfect portion. Trader Joes makes a dark chocolate 100-calorie mini bar that’s a little larger (.6 oz.) but another good and “safe” option. Our clients also love Sweet Riot tins of chocolate covered cacao nibs. They look like chocolate covered Rice Krispies (just providing the visual) and each nib is a few calories and extremely satisfying for that little sweet we all want after a meal.

Chocolate Cookies

You’re more a cookie person? No problem.

Ginny Bakes makes a Double Chocolate Happiness cookie with dark chocolate chips and cocoa powder that’s gluten free, kosher and non-gmo. Or if you like a little coconut with your chocolate you must try Hail Merry’s Chocolate Macaroons.

If you’d rather make your own, almond and coconut flours are great pantry staples for healthy baking.

Chocolate Nutrition Bars

Nutrition bars are great when you’re on the go. Steer clear of artificial sweeteners and processed soy (soy protein isolates, soy protein concentrates). Kind Bar’s dark choice sea salt has only 5 grams of sugar and is the perfect blend of sweet & salty. Nothing is better. We also love the gluten-free bars from Zing; their dark chocolate sunflower mint is reminiscent of a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie (but with quality ingredients- girl scouts should take notes).

Chocolate Spreads

And for the nutella lovers there are great choices in chocolate spreads. The product used that to be known as “Rawtella” is now called Rawmio, and is full of chocolate, hazelnut goodness. Newtree also makes a dark chocolate spread with chicory (a prebiotic fiber). On the go, there’s the Justin’s dark chocolate squeeze packs.

What’s your favorite chocolate? Any of these you’re excited to try? If forced to choose chocolate or your Valentine what would it be?