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Chocolate is one of the best treats in the world, wouldn’t you agree? I mean, it has so many powerful benefits, but it also is just plain good.
So, how can you eat chocolate when you can’t have dairy?
The majority of the chocolate you buy at the store (candy bars, chocolate chips, cookies, or cakes) contain milk or butter. Milk chocolate is sweeter, creamier, and one of everyone’s favorite forms of chocolate.
The Best Dairy-Free Chocolate Options
I never put much thought into the actual chocolate ingredients until about five years ago. Even when I presented my senior research project for my chemistry degree, I really just dug deep into the health benefits and chemical composition…not store bought ingredients.
My husband is a complete chocoholic. Well, sweets in general, but chocolate more than anything else in the world. He can eat an entire bag of Hershey kisses in like an hour. That is how much he loves it.
He used to get away with it too. Side note, how do men get away with eating like that, when us women have to watch every morsel? I guess being in the Marine Corps and being fit helps, but still not fair lol
Anyways, he USED to get away with it until (very long story short) he got very ill and lost his colon. Now, he can’t have dairy in any form without getting sick. Guess what? The chocolate had to go. He was devastated, to say the least.
So, I started finding alternative ways for him to enjoy his chocolate without dairy. Luckily, we do live in an age that has made so many things more available to people with food allergies. There are many natural ways to enjoy chocolate without dairy, but there are also many brands that have some great products out there too!
Here are the ways you can eat chocolate when you can’t have dairy!
Keep it Natural With Cocoa Powder For a Dairy-Free Chocolate Option
Obviously the more natural the chocolate, the less likely it will contain dairy.
Cocoa Powders are perfect for creating drinks, icings, or adding to just about anything. They have one ingredient, cocoa powder. My personal favorite is always Hershey’s unsweetened natural cocoa powder. It is the best quality and easily accessible.
Be sure to read about the two types of cocoa powder here to make sure you are using the best one for whatever you are making.
Dark Chocolate is the most raw form of chocolate you can get. You can check the labels on almost all dark chocolates and see that there is no milk products. Be careful on candy bars and chocolate chips though. Even baking dark chocolate chips will usually contain milk solids! This is another instance where you want to find an organic, high cacao percentage which will typically not have dairy!
Cacao nibs are another completely natural form of chocolate that don’t contain dairy! They are the perfect dairy-free chocolate option! I bake cookies or brownies for my husband and add these for a nice chocolate crunch! If you haven’t tried these yet, definitely check them out! They are also really good for you and high in magnesium. This one is my favorite brand, it is affordable and has a great taste!
Store Bought Dairy-Free Chocolate Options
I have been trying out different dairy-free chocolates over the last few years and they actually have some great alternatives now!
The brand we like most, that is also the most affordable, is Enjoy Life! There are other options on the market brand wise, but this is the best price and best quality from the ones we have tried. My chocoholic husband agrees.
Enjoy Life chocolate chips are perfect for cookies, brownies, ice creams, etc. I always keep a bag on hand.
These Enjoy Life Rice Crunch Bars are the best alternative to crunch bars! They are made with rice milk, but seriously just as good as the other kind.
The other one my husband loves is this Chocolateriz bar.
This is the best guide to how you can eat chocolate when you can’t have dairy! I will continue to keep you updated on the best products we try out! Feel free to follow me on instagram and for more!
Let me know if you have any questions! Feel free to email me with any questions about baking, health, etc. I love to help!
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Love that you dove into this for the hubby, and I wish I could understand how men eat the way they do while we watch every little thing. So not fair 😛
I know!! What is it with men! Lucky lol
cool! I never thought about dairy being in it, but I love dark chocolate!
elle
Southern Elle Style
Dark chocolate is so good!! It is definitely my favorite 🙂
Great tips here. I stick to the darkest chocolate I can get my hands on. Better for you. Trying to reduce my sugar intake to see if it helps with the RA inflammation. It is really hard to do!
I don’t eat much sugar, but if I do it really makes my RA flare! Really anything processed doesn’t work well with me. Thanks Michelle!
I cannot have dairy, but I also don’t like chocolate so it’s easy for me. However, if I am ever using chocolate in a recipe that I am going to consume, I always get DARK CHOCOLATE sweetened with Stevia or Monk Fruit Extract. I really like Coco Polo. Also, NuNaturals had chocolate sauce that’s zero-calorie “sauce” made from Stevia! And have cocoa powder too, that doesn’t have dairy in it either! It’s becoming easier to be dairy-free these days!
I am the same way…chocolate is something I don’t care a whole lot for. Unless I am totally in the mood for something sweet! My husband is totally crazy about it though lol. I have tried the NuNaturals chocolate sauce and really liked it! My husband didn’t though, he is so picky. He hates the taste of stevia, oddly enough! I love it though. I will have to try Coco Polo!! It really is getting so much easier to find dairy alternatives today!! I love that!
I prefer dark chocolate to the milk anyway. I’m glad to know which have little or no dairy because I’m not supposed to eat it but I do. Thanks
Dark chocolate is definitely the best way to go usually!!! 🙂
So far semi-sweet chocolate chips are the only thing I’ve found, that my body will happily accept.
I enjoy semi-sweet chocolate!
Very interesting. My husband has a lactose issue and dark chocolate is his go to. It must be why he can tolerate it and can eat so much of it! Thanks for linking up with Funtastic Friday.
I bet that is why too!! Most dark chocolate is very natural, although some still has dairy, which I don’t know why they think it’s necessary!! 🙂
I can’t eat much chocolate, because it does not like me, strange because I like it, very unfriendly of it. I do like the dark stuff and the doc has just told me to go dairy free. Thanks for all this info.
Dark chocolate is really good for you!! I have trouble eating too much chocolate mainly because of the sugar content in most processed types. I really love dark chocolate though 🙂
Great info about chocolate.Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersParty. We would love to have you again next week.
Thanks so much!! I will definitely see you next week at the link up 🙂
Great Information! I’ve pinned this post as a reference. Thank you for sharing at the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-up 🙂
Thanks so much Angela!!
Trader joe chocolate baking chips are also dairy free. Perfect for my dairy- allergic child
I wish we had a Trader Joes!
I am lactose intolerant. I literally can’t handle even small amounts of dairy without some suffering (maybe an allergy is involved as well?). It is annoying that dark chocolates often utilize milk ingredients, however, they are insanely better that way. Every time I eat dark chocolate and am unaware of the dairy I find myself wondering why it tastes so good! So, for whatever reason that little bit of milk really adds to it. It’s kind of like that Ben and Jerry’s dairy free ice cream. Its good but it’s not even close to the real thing. I craved ice cream and could eat a whole tub before my lactose intolerance. The fake stuff makes me sick after half a pint. Its basically just chilled sugary goop.
Milk does add a great flavor to chocolate. This is why I love enjoy life brand for chocolates! It taste just the same…so good!
This is perfect for me since I love chocolate and can’t let it go. Definitely going to have to try some of these.
Hope you enjoy!!