"Why does the healthiest have to taste the worst?"
Chocolate is my one weakness, so when my co-host, nutritionist Lee Holmes, told me she was ranking the healthiest chocolates for episode 2 of The Lee & Irene Show, my first words were, "Please don't say anything negative about chocolate. It is my one thing that I love."
Lee ranked her picks on how pure the cacao is, gut support and taste. Then she put a blindfold on me and I tasted 6 of them. You can listen to the full episode here:
The chocolates I tasted
Loco Love Hazelnut Butter Praline with Maca
This is Lee's favourite, and she calls it the "gold standard for taste". It has prebiotic fibre from whole ingredients and zero emulsifiers, and in Lee's words, "it's functional medicine disguised as a treat."
What I thought: I knew which one it was straight away, because it's the one I buy. I told Lee, "I can tell you without trying anything else, this is going to be my number one." My favourite is their peanut butter one, which tastes like a Snickers, and it's pretty much the only chocolate I eat now.
Pana Organic Tasmanian Sea Salt
Lee ranked this one 9th. It's organic and plant-based with prebiotic fibre, sweetened with coconut sugar, and 43% cacao. Lee describes it as smooth, salty and a little bit creamy.
What I thought: It surprised me. I don't usually love Pana because I don't think it's sweet enough, but this one was really good. "It's sweet, but the sweetness goes away in a second." It came second in my taste test.
Chow Cacao Truffalos
Lee ranked these 6th, and only recently discovered them at our local health food store in Avalon. They're organic and vegan, high in cacao, low in coconut sugar, with no junk.
What I thought: I loved these. They're little balls with caramel notes, and they came third in my taste test. "This is great to have in the fridge because I have such a sweet tooth."
Old Gold 70%
Lee put this supermarket block at number 10, because it's easy to find. It has decent cacao, but it's high in refined sugar.
What I thought: My husband buys this one and I don't like it, but when there's nothing in the house and I need something sweet, "it will do the trick."
Noya Plain Milk with Coconut Milk
Lee ranked this 7th. It's single origin cacao, soy and dairy free and sweetened with coconut sugar, but it has some rice fillers, and it dropped down her list because of the taste.
What I thought: It was okay, but it didn't taste like chocolate to me. It reminded me of the healthy hot chocolate you get at a health food cafe.
Alter Eco Total Blackout
Lee's number one. It's 100% cacao with no sugar, and "it's got a really intense flavour." She has a couple of friends who are real purists and love it, but she doesn't eat it at night because the cacao makes her a bit jumpy.
What I thought: I didn't like it. I thought it was really bitter, and as a sweet tooth it tasted like it had no sugar at all. It came last in my taste test, and I told Lee, "I will never eat that."
Lee's other picks
Lee also had a few more on her list that I didn't get to taste on the show.
Om Bar is one Lee always buys when she's in the US or the UK. "It's really tasty and it's super healthy", and it's now available in Australia. Gutsy has "probiotic perks" in it. And Spencer's uses a little Bundaberg raw sugar, but Lee says, "They use really quality ingredients."
Cacao or cocoa?
In Lee's words, "You've got cacao, which is yummy, but it's generally raw and cold processed and it keeps the enzymes and the antioxidants and all the good stuff alive." Then, "Cocoa, on the other hand, is roasted and processed because they heat it to this high temperature and you lose a lot of those beauty and health benefits along with it."
Check the label for emulsifiers
Lee told me soy lecithin "helps with the texture of chocolate, but it's really bloating." I can't have gluten or dairy, and I'd never worked out why I was still bloating, so that would explain it.
The best time to eat chocolate
Lee says not to eat it on an empty stomach, or you'll get a big glucose spike. She pairs chocolate with nuts or berries, "because the fibre and the protein can slow down that sugar absorption."
Her sweet spot is 10 to 11 in the morning, or 2 to 3pm for the afternoon slump, and she avoids it after 4pm if you're caffeine sensitive. She recommends "a few squares of dark chocolate three to five times a week." I had to admit I've been doing it all wrong. I eat mine in bed after 11 o'clock at night, while I'm doom scrolling on TikTok.
Lee's 10 gram sugar rule
Our listener Margaret called in to ask how to read the sugar on food labels, and Lee's answer works for chocolate too. Ignore the per serve column, "because the industry really manipulates serving sizes to make the numbers look small." Look at the 100 gram column and aim for less than 10 grams of sugar. If it's over 15, it's a dessert.
Margaret also asked if eating raw veggies before a meal really slows down sugar absorption. Lee said, "It is absolutely real." Eating fibre like a green salad or raw carrots first slows down how fast the sugar hits your bloodstream. Or as Lee put it, "Never eat your carbs naked."
Listen to the full episode
We also talked about skincare for men and what to look for in anti-ageing creams. You can listen to episode 2 on Spotify to hear the whole blindfolded taste test.
About the Author
Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.
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