Thursday, February 7, 2013

How is this healthy again?

There is a recipe currently going around Pinterest. I've seen it repinned at least 10 times now and every time I see it I think to myself: Is that really "healthy"? This is it. The pin says "When you need a healthy sweet: So good. Just five ingredients- coconut oil, cocoa powder, almond/peanut butter, honey, vanilla. 


I'm trying to lose weight and I like chocolate so a healthy chocolate SOUNDS great. But when I read the recipe it didn't really sound all that healthy. In fact, it didn't sound healthy at all. Coconut oil (fat), cocoa powder (ok, I guess), almond butter (fat and a little protein), honey (sugar) and vanilla (flavor). So.... fat, sugar and flavor. Then I thought, well is it better for me than a Reese's Cup because I love a Reese's Cup for a treat sometimes. So I entered the recipe into my favorite recipe site (www.food.com) because they calculate the nutrition facts from the recipe. Here are the nutrition facts for this recipe. 


Calories 210.5 
  Calories from Fat 168     
Total Fat 18.7 g                  28%
  Saturated Fat 10.3 g          51%
Cholesterol 0.0 mg               0%
Sodium 29.3 mg                   1%
Total Carbohydrate 12.0 g   4%
Dietary Fiber 2.7 g              11%   
Sugars 7.6 g                        30%
Protein 3.6 g                          

Compare that to the nutrition facts for a Reese's Cup.


Calories 80
  Calories from Fat 45
Total Fat 5.0g                             8%
 Saturated Fat 2.0g                  10%
 Trans Fat 0.2g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.0g
Cholesterol 5mg                        2%
Sodium 55mg                            2%
Total Carbohydrates 9.0g         3%
  Dietary Fiber 1.0g                   4%
  Sugars 8.0g
Protein 2.0g

So the healthy chocolate has 2.5X the calories and nearly 4X the fat (including 50% of the daily allowance of saturated fat) of the Reese's Cup? I'm not a dietitian or even really in to health and fitness but this one seems 100% bogus to me!


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