Non-farty sugar-free chocolate!

As I've previously described, diabetic plain choc with maltitol isn't bad in terms of taste and texture, but can have rather unfortunate effects should one over-indulge! So, I was delighted to see dairy-free, sugar-free plain chocolate in my (new) local health food shop (I've recently moved). Made by Plamil, it's sweetened with Xylitol instead and while too much will have a laxative effect, you would need to eat several bars a day. Which, given that the chocolate is quite cocoa rich (60%) and bitter, would take quite an effort. I've been slowly eating a 100g bar over the last couple of days and so far, I'm pleased to report, I have avoided an outbreak of acne, which is the other side-effect of maltitol I've experienced.

So, to summarise, it's not as chocolaty or 'sweet' as the previous 'Belgian' versions of dark chocolate I've tried before (with maltitol), but it does satisfy that ever-present craving for chocolate!

Chocolate

I'm so glad I'm allowed to eat diabetic plain chocolate on this diet. Cos every now and then (approximately once a month!) chocolate is a complete necessity. Better still, the newsagents near my office quite unexpectantly sells a good range of maltitol-sweetened Belgian chocolate. The manufacturer is Cachet and they make an orange flavoured and plain dark chocolate, which is fairly bitter; almost like cooking chocolate. And I love it!

Belgian waffles - yum!

Just a quick post, so I can brag about all the wonderful treats I've got while basking in smug chocolatey-loveliness. A friend just came back from visiting another friend in Belgium with a bag full of treats pour moi!

I've already devoured the dairy-free, sugar-free (sweetened with maltitol) slab of plain Belgian chocolate - those Belgians know how to make chocolate, and GOD! Do they know how to make diabetic chocolate?!!! Better than that Boots cr*p I was writing about the other day!

I've just eaten a mini chocolate waffle. Well, what can I say? Just sweet enough without cloying, no bitter aftertaste. Really...very special indeed. So, what's in it? I hear you cry. Well, drawing on my rudimentary French language skills (with a little bit of help from Babel Fish), I reckon the ingredients are as follows:

Wheatflour
Pure chocolate (23%), sweetened with maltitol
Vegetable oil
Fructose from chicory (which is a new one on me)
Fresh egg
Water
Maltitol
Inulin fibre (another type of fructose)
Soya flour
Maize starch
Raising agents: mono-calcium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate
Emulsifier: soya lecithin
Sea salt
Natural flavourings

Plus, it also contains bifidogenic fibres (i.e. 'friendly' bacteria). They're also lactose-free and GMO-free.

They're made by a company called Damhert Natural Products. From their website, it looks like they offer a massive range of 'free from' products. Wouldn't it be fabulous if they were available here?

I also got a pack of Canderel brand plain chocolate with hazelnut bars and strawberry flavoured 'laces' from the Hema supermarket. Now, both of these contain illicit substances, like aspartame and glucose, so I'm saving them for Christmas Day, when I'm planning one almighty PIG OUT! :)

Maltitol

Maltitol is a sugar alcohol (polyol) derived from corn, which is often used as a sweetener in diabetic food products because it is metabolised by the body less quickly than sucrose, and does not, therefore affect blood sugars to the same degree. And, depending on who you believe, it doesn't feed and promote yeast overgrowth either. Neither does it have much of an unpleasant chemical after-taste like many artificial sweeteners.

The nasty side-effects of aspartame are well known, so when I'm looking for an occasional treat (let's face it, we all need a bit of comfort food from time to time), I tend to avoid anything containing it. Much of Boots' (the Chemists) range of diabetic sweets, chocolate and biscuits contain both sweeteners, but their dark chocolate mint discs and shortbread fingers, just use maltitol, and the chocolate discs are dairy-free to boot! So I've availed myself of a couple of packets to get me through that 'time of the month'. And they're really not bad. Diabetic chocolate is never going to be the same as normal chocolate (and I still crave a bar of Dairy Milk from time to time), but it's not far off and the shortbread fingers are a revelation: buttery and delicious, with no perceptible difference from 'normal' shortbread. Great!

My nutritional therapist assures me that products containing maltitol are fine occasionally - possibly not for someone just starting out on the diet (it's a really good idea to deal with that initial sugar craving and in time lose your sweet tooth), but for me - maintaining - it's okay. Of course, excessive consumption is not recommended; for a start large amounts of maltitol can laxative affect!