Let me just start off by confessing that I never met a chocolate that didn’t call my name.
In fact, I believe chocolate should be included in the basic food groups of our illustrious food pyramid. Full of antioxidents, a little bit of chocolate can go a long way in soothing the road-weary soul at the end of a long day. And, I believe that eating pure chocolate, as opposed to chocolate in cookies or other baked goods, will not hinder any weight-loss goals. Seriously.
A good chocolate syrup can provide a satisfying chocolaty experience, provided it’s not loading you up with high fructose corn syrup or trans-fats. Pouring it over small chunks of fruit is like bringing a chocolate fountain into your house — fun to eat and delightfully delicious. If I had a light dinner that night, I might even consider layering bananas and chocolate syrup with no-sugar-added almond butter. This is one of my favorite desserts!
Here’s the problem with common brands of chocolate syrup: they cheap-out and use high fructose corn syrup instead of real sugar. As I’m sure you already know, high fructose corn syrup is a highly processed, highly concentrated byproduct of our corn industry. It is incredibly cheap (mostly due to our farm subsidy policies which are causing us to have too much corn) and unbelievably widespread
Start reading labels and prepare to be shocked at how frequently you see high fructose corn syrup appear. It’s in soda pop, flavored waters, Wheat Thins (why, General Mills? why would you ruin a perfectly healthy baked whole grain cracker with high fructose corn syrup? it breaks my heart), breakfast cereals, GoGurt and other yogurts, cereal bars… the list goes on and on.
Highly processed, synthetic and artificial sweeteners fool the body into releasing hormones to process the “food” which then send out other substances that turn calories into fat for storage. Yep, that’s storage on your rear or around your middle compliments of the processed food industries.
My advice: if it has high fructose corn syrup on the label, find a different brand or skip it altogether.
The best, high-fructose-corn-syrup-free chocolate syrup I’ve found is called Ah!Alaska I find it at the natural grocery store.
I can’t wait to make this desert!
On my way to get my fructose corn syrup free chocolate syrup. Yummy!
I love everything that I have been learning from
you. Thank you so much Elizabeth!
Hi — I read recently that corn syrup and ordinary sugar contain roughly the same amount of fructose. It’s probably worth checking this out.
I love this Ah!Alaska syrup and agree, its about the best out there. I made a New York Egg Cream with it using silk soy creamer and sparkling water…wow, loved it, first time I’ve had one of these. Now, I’m going to try to make some with raw cacao and see what I can come up with
Joey
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Thanks! I just did a google search for chocolate syrup without high fructose corn syrup, and was finding nothing… Until your blog came along!!
p.s. (and related to weight loss) – I’ve been reading that chocolate milk (without HFCS, of course) is a great post-exercise drink.
I too googled chocolate syrup without corn syrup and came upon your post. Thank you so much for this information. My teenage boys love chocolate milk and I was thinking of making my own and saving some money.
Back in 2007, Tom reported that “corn syrup and ordinary sugar contain roughly the same amount of fructose.” This is true; both products are (roughly) half glucose and half fructose.
It does not follow that corn syrup is just fine. Actually, standard refined white cane (or beet) sugar is about as bad as HFCS.
The better choice is to use forms of sugar which are not so highly refined, not so processed. These alternatives have more of a mix of sugar types, and more of the other components of their natural food source. The key is to keep it closer to its original, natural form, which is always a complex of compounds rather than a single pure one.
This brand of chocolate syrup uses organic evaporated cane juice, which has not undergone several of the stages of white-sugar purifying and bleaching.
Also, I think unrefined sugars just taste better. Try demerara sugar for coffee and tea, for example. I buy the coarsest, darkest crystals I can find.