What’s the Difference Between Sugar-Free and No-Sugar-Added Chocolate?
There’s nothing like relaxing with a bag of sugar free chocolate at the end of a long day. You get all the sweetness and antioxidants without the side effects of sugary candy. The problem is deciding whether you want chocolate marked “sugar free” or “no sugar added.”
What do these terms mean for you and your chocolate consumption?
Sugar-Free Chocolate
Chocolate labeled “sugar free” should contain zero sugar. This means the raw ingredients used to make the chocolate are free of sugar and that no sugar was added during processing. Check the nutrition label to make sure the sugar content is listed as zero.
Sugar-free products will only contain dark chocolate. There is a reason milk chocolate products cannot use this label, and we will discuss that next.
No-Sugar-Added Chocolate
Milk chocolate contains lactose, which is a sugar found naturally in milk. Because this sugar is present in the chocolate as a raw ingredient, there’s no way to make sugar-free chocolate from milk chocolate. That is why milk chocolate products use the no-sugar-added label instead. That label designates that there is natural sugar in the recipe, but no extra sugar was added during processing.
Which One Is Better?
If you need to avoid sugar entirely, then sugar-free is the way to go. That label is your assurance that the chocolates were created with sugar-free raw ingredients and no additional sugar was added to the recipe.
You might choose no-sugar-added chocolate if you prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate and can tolerate small amounts of natural sugars. Depending on your reasons for limiting or eliminating sugar from your diet, you may decide that creamy, sweet milk chocolate is worth the small amount of sugar that comes with each serving.
If you don’t have strict dietary limitations, the choice between dark and milk chocolate is based on personal preference. At Amber Lyn Chocolates, dark chocolate and milk chocolate are both delicious, low-sugar options. The best way to determine your favorite is to try a little of both.