Why "Sugar Free" Chocolate Annoys Me
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I'll be honest: the words "sugar free" on a chocolate wrapper really annoy me.
Not because cutting sugar is a bad idea. It's the whole reason I make chocolate. It annoys me because "sugar free" often doesn't mean what you think it does You can avoid sugar and still get the blood sugar spike you were trying to avoid.
There are two tricks I see again and again. Here's what they are, and why I make our chocolate differently.
Problem 1: maltitol
Maltitol is a sweetener found in a lot of "sugar free" chocolate. It isn't sugar, so the wrapper can say sugar free. But your body still breaks a good chunk of it down into glucose, so it still raises your blood sugar. Not as much as sugar, but enough to matter.
Here's the analogy I use. Imagine saying, "I'm not drinking any alcohol tonight, so I'm fine to drive," and then taking a different drug instead. You've technically avoided the alcohol. You're still going to crash the car.
Maltitol is the same. You've avoided the sugar, but your blood sugar still climbs. Lots of people also find it upsets their stomach.
It's popular because it's cheap and behaves a lot like sugar in a recipe. Most shoppers have never heard of it. But anyone managing their blood sugar quickly learns it's one to avoid. That's why every DGF bar is maltitol free.
Problem 2: dates and "natural" sugar
The other one is chocolate sweetened with dates, often sold as "refined sugar free" or "naturally sweetened." A lot of people hear that and think "sugar free."
Dates are still sugar. It's intrinsic sugar, which means it comes packaged with the fruit's fibre. That fibre slows things down, so the spike is gentler than with plain sugar.
But gentler isn't gone. You're still eating sugar, and your blood sugar still goes up. It's not sugar free, it's just sugar with better PR.
Why I care so much about this
Deliciously Guilt Free started when my wife was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, often called pregnancy diabetes. She still wanted sweet treats, and I wanted to make them for her.
When I worked out my first recipes, I wasn't thinking about marketing. I was thinking about what would keep my wife, and our unborn daughter, safe through her gestational diabetes. So I had to investigate every single ingredient. Anything that would spike her blood sugar was out, whatever the label said.
How we make no added sugar chocolate
After all that research, I landed on three ingredients:
- Erythritol. A polyol your body doesn't use for energy. Most of it passes through you unchanged, so it doesn't raise blood sugar the way sugar does.
- Inulin. Not a sweetener at all, but a fibre with a naturally sweet taste. Like any fibre, your body can't digest it.
- Stevia. A plant-based sweetener with no meaningful effect on blood sugar.
Swapping sugar for these means a much lower blood glucose rise than sugar-sweetened chocolate. That's why every bar we make is no added sugar chocolate, sweetened with erythritol and stevia. It's also a natural fit for keto and low carb diets: take out the sweeteners and there are very few carbs left.
Being honest: zero added sugar isn't always zero sugar
I'm not going to do the thing I'm complaining about. Zero added sugar doesn't mean every bar is completely sugar free.
Our milk chocolate contains a tiny amount of lactose, the natural sugar in milk powder. To keep it as low as possible, I replace a lot of the milk powder with whey powder, for more protein, and cream powder, for more fat. You get a creamy milk chocolate with the sugar kept to a minimum.
Truly sugar free dark chocolate
If you want chocolate that really is sugar free, our dark chocolate is it. It has less sugar than an onion, a lettuce, a cucumber or a head of broccoli. Each square has just 0.01g of sugar.
| Food (per 100g) | Sugar |
|---|---|
| Onion | 4.2g |
| Broccoli | 1.7g |
| Cucumber | 1.7g |
| Lettuce | 1.2g |
| DGF 70% dark chocolate | 0.3g |
Nobody worries about the sugar in their broccoli. You don't need to worry about it in our dark chocolate either.
How to check any "sugar free" chocolate
Next time you pick up a bar, ignore the front of the wrapper and turn it over:
- Read the ingredients. Look for maltitol, dates, coconut sugar, honey or syrups.
- Check "of which sugars" on the nutrition panel.
- Look at what's doing the sweetening, not just what's missing.
Or skip the detective work. Shop our no added sugar chocolate, or try the 70% dark chocolate if you want it truly sugar free.
FAQ
Is maltitol sugar free?
Maltitol isn't sugar, so products using it can be labelled sugar free. But it still raises blood sugar, roughly half as much as table sugar.
Is date-sweetened chocolate sugar free?
No. Dates contain natural sugar. The fibre softens the spike, but you're still eating sugar.
Is Deliciously Guilt Free chocolate sugar free?
All our chocolate is zero added sugar, sweetened with erythritol, inulin and stevia. Our dark chocolate is fully sugar free. Our milk chocolate contains a small amount of natural lactose from milk.
What sweeteners does DGF use?
Erythritol, inulin and stevia. We never use maltitol.
