{"id":299638,"date":"2020-10-14T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/?p=299638"},"modified":"2021-09-07T06:30:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T10:30:43","slug":"the-best-vegan-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/inform\/the-best-vegan-chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"Ditch The Dairy With These 7 Heavenly Vegan Chocolate Fixes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can chocolate be dairy-free and still taste delicious? Well, the vast range of vegan chocolate makers out there would dare to say so, and so would we. A\u00a0<\/span>2010 study<\/span><\/a>\u00a0into the effect of adding milk to chocolate even found that cacao drastically loses its antioxidant properties when it contains dairy. If you can get something that is healthier and tastes just as good, why wouldn’t you give it a go, vegan or not?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cacao has been consumed without the addition of dairy products for much longer than it has been mixed with milk. Chocolate drinks were first prepared in Mexico as early as 1750BC and it wasn’t until 1875, over 2000 years later, that Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate by mixing a powdered milk developed by Henri Nestl\u00e9 with chocolate liquor (a mix of cocoa butter and cocoa solids liquified by heat).<\/span><\/p>\n

Vegan chocolate is not simply a trend then, but a way of consuming cacao that\u2019s far truer to these roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those of you unfamiliar with the vegan chocolate world, we’ve decided to round up a few of our favourites. Most of the brands in this selection are\u00a0<\/span>Fair Trade<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as much of the industry remains based on the exploitation and slave labour of farmers in West Africa (the episode ‘Bitter Chocolate’ in season two of Netflix documentary<\/a> series\u00a0<\/span>Rotten<\/span><\/a>\u00a0exposes this dark side well).<\/span><\/p>\n

Humans need \u00a32 a day to guarantee the basic human rights of food, housing, education, health care, and safe water. But a Fairtrade International report revealed that the average income for cocoa farmers (74p per day) is less than half of this. What we spend here in the UK on one chocolate bar is what can sustain a fair living to cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast for a day. We can help improve farmers’ income and lives by simply educating ourselves on the origin of the cacao we eat and by supporting ethical and transparent brands.<\/span><\/p>\n

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