Milk Chocolate Vs Dark Chocolate: Which One Can You Eat Being Diabetic?

If you are living with diabetes, then anything sweet is probably not something you would want on your plate. Those who are living with diabetes are also told to avoid chocolates however, now, a new study says that those who regularly ate chocolate had a lower likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Before you get too happy, the study only talks abut dark chocolate, and not the regular ones or the milk chocolates. Though it is still not clear why is that. The study is published in the BMJ journal, titled Chocolate intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: prospective cohort studies.

What did the study find?

The researchers believe that dark chocolate offers grater metabolic benefits than milk chocolates because it contains less sugar, and higher levels of plant compounds. In time, as studies suggests, it has shown to reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity.

Researchers examined data from about 192,000 U.S. men and women who were tracked for over 30 years. These participants, including nurses, doctors, and other health professionals, regularly reported on their diet, weight, physical activity, and overall health.

After adjusting for factors like age and exercise, the study found a significant link between dark chocolate consumption and a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes. Those who ate at least five ounces of dark chocolate per week—about five servings—had a 21% lower risk of developing diabetes compared to those who rarely or never ate it. Additionally, for every extra ounce of dark chocolate consumed per week, diabetes risk dropped by 3%. This effect was more pronounced in men and individuals under 70, though the exact reason remains unclear.

Milk chocolate, on the other hand, showed no metabolic health benefits. In fact, as milk chocolate intake increased, so did the likelihood of weight gain, particularly among those who were already obese.

Milk Chocolate Vs Dark Chocolate

Both the chocolates contain high amounts of fats, and in certain cases sugar too. However, milk chocolate has more added sugar.

Dark chocolate on the other hand has a lot of cocoa, ground up cacao beans, which means it has several times the concentration of beneficial plant compounds called polyphenols. The kind that it has is called flavonoids. These are natural and can also act as antioxidants. They are also found in many plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, tea, and coffee. There have been studies too that suggest that these flavonoids help to protect against Type 2 diabetes by improving how our bodies respond to insulin and break down sugar. There are other studies too that links flavonoids with lowering the risk of heart diseases and high blood pressure.

Whereas, white chocolates contain no cocoa powder, and has little or no flavonoids or polyphenols, but has the highest sugar content.

There have been previously done studies that found that eating chocolate could lead to a reduction in the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes. There also have been clinical trials too, where assigned people ate dark chocolates every day for two weeks and lowered their blood pressure levels, improved their insulin sensitivity and led to other improvements in their cardiovascular and metabolic health, compared to those who were assigned to eat white chocolates.

However, the problem with the current study is that while it does show the correlation between dark chocolates and diabetes risk, it fails to establish the causation.