Jul 30, 2019

Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate 30% less sugar review


One of my Insta followers had DMed me to share my thoughts on the new Cadbury Dairy Milk with 30% less sugar. 

My criteria for picking products is quite simple - any brand that uses health-related claims in their promotions. That's the reason why you wouldn't have seen many reviews of typical chocolates or candies in my blog.

In my 20s, Dairy Milk used to be one of my favorite chocolates. I was never a big chocolate fan but whenever I wanted to eat a piece of chocolate, I used to choose Dairy Milk - the regular one (not the kozha kozha silk version). 

Dairy Milk wasn't on my radar of packaged food reviews, but this DM from a reader along with this media article with the attractive headline "Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate gets a healthier version with 30% less sugar" coaxed me to check out its ingredients.

From a brand perspective, quoting from this LiveMint article,

The company is betting that indulgence-seeking consumers who are also health-conscious will opt for the low-sugar variant.

Let's look at the comparison of the regular Dairy Milk along with the new less sugar version.

  1. Yes, it is true that the new one has 30% less sugar. What's shocking is the amount of sugar present in the regular chocolate - a whopping 57%. I'm sure many of us wouldn't have realized the high amounts of sugar in the first place.
  2. The Saturated Fat values still remain the same and the ingredient "Edible Vegetable Fat" is being used but no information shared on the source of this fat. The low sugar version contains the same emulsifiers and artificial flavouring substances, as compared to the regular chocolate.
  3. Given that the sugar values have reduced by 30%, I was hoping that the carbs value would also have reduced proportionately but it hasn't. Carbs are more or less the same.
  4. The ingredient "Soluble corn fibre" (SCF) contributes to the increase in carbs and fibre. On googling, I came across this medical research paper that talks about how SCF contributes to bone health. But I'm skeptical of it as the sample size is too small (14 women participated). There has been quite a discussion in the Keto community about this ingredient but mostly mixed responses. My conclusion - SCF is derived by processing corn syrup. There is nothing natural about it, even though some people claim that it can act as a prebiotic. SCF is typically used by food manufacturers as it is extremely cheap and can add bulk to processed foods. Some articles also state that SCF is nothing but resistant maltodextrin. 

All I'd like to suggest is this - Just because it is being promoted as 30% less sugar, let's not go overboard and stock up our fridge with loads of it and eat a pack whenever sugar/chocolate cravings hit us. It is still the same junk as compared to any other piece of chocolate. Let's get to the root cause of our cravings and address the real issue.

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