Scientists Have Created a Milk Chocolate with the Same Health Benefits as Dark

Similar to the wave of guilt you feel when choosing white bread over brown, when you're chomping through a family-size bar of Dairy Milk, there's always that little voice in your head, reminding you that you should really be nibbling on a single square of 75-percent cacao dark chocolate instead.

But now, it seems we can have that creamy milk chocolate and eat it—health benefits included.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that by fortifying milk chocolate with peanut skin compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, bars can contain the same nutritional benefits as dark chocolate, without compromising on taste.

There is a god, after all.

In the study, which was published two weeks ago in the Journal of Food Science, peanut skins—a by-product of peanut production—were treated with maltodextrin, a food additive, to make the skin compounds less bitter. After incorporating and fortifying milk chocolate with the compounds, 80 participants blind taste-tested the treated and untreated milk chocolate.

The results showed that not only did participants like the fortified milk chocolate as much as the normal chocolate, the "threshold for detecting the presence of the peanut skin extract was higher than that needed to fortify the milk chocolate to antioxidant levels comparable to dark chocolate."

So, basically, fortified milk chocolate could contain more antioxidants than dark chocolate without you knowing a thing. That is, apart from those with peanut allergies. Researchers say that tests are still ongoing into the chocolate's allergen sensitivity.

Lead author of the study and food scientist Lisa Dean said in a press release that the discovery could have implications for foods other than chocolate, too. She said: "If applied to commercial products, peanut skin extracts would allow consumers to enjoy mild tasting products and have exposure to compounds that have proven health benefits."

But before you sign up to bulk-buy fortified Freddos, it's worth remembering that the health benefits linked to chocolate—no matter how many antioxidants it claims to contain—are hotly contested. For every scientist praising the healing powers of cacao, there's always another raining on our chocolatey health food parade.

It can't hurt to have a bar a day just in case the believers are right though, eh?