Dark chocolate

Dark chocolate is high because the level tracks cocoa content: the higher the percentage, the more nickel. An 85% bar carries roughly twice what a 45% one does.

Dark chocolate's oxalate rises with the cocoa percentage, which makes the number on the front of the bar the best guide available - but it is a direction, not a ratio. The oxalate is held in the non-fat cocoa solids; the percentage counts cocoa butter as well, and a higher figure means more of both. So an 85 per cent bar is higher than a 45, and not by the arithmetic of 85 over 45. The healthier the bar reads, the higher it sits here.

Dark chocolate is moderate in FODMAPs on portion, not on principle: cocoa itself carries little, and a couple of squares is low. What moves it is quantity, and the higher the cocoa percentage the less sugar and milk come with it - so an 85% bar is the safer choice here for the same reason it is the bitterer one.

Dark chocolate is on this axis for two reasons worth separating. It is classified as a liberator by the elimination protocols - a classification, not a demonstrated effect - and it carries its own biogenic amines, which compete with histamine for DAO rather than blocking it. Which amines is worth stating precisely: the chromatography cited here looked for five and found dopamine, HISTAMINE and serotonin in the real samples — tyramine and phenylethylamine were looked for and not found. Both follow the cocoa, so the percentage on the front is the best guide available: not a proportion, though, because that figure counts cocoa butter, which carries neither. The better the bar reads, the higher it sits - the opposite of how most food advice runs. The Swiss list rates it 2 of 3 under “cocoa, cocoa powder (chocolate, etc.)” and marks it A for other biogenic amines and L for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement.

Dark chocolate carries less sugar than milk chocolate, and the higher the cocoa percentage the less again - an 85% bar is roughly a sixth sugar where a 45% one is more than half.

Dark chocolate carries more salicylate than milk chocolate for a simple reason: more cocoa per bar. The percentage on the label tracks the load closely.

Dark chocolate carries milk more often than its name suggests, for two different reasons worth separating. Some recipes include a little milk fat outright, in which case the ingredient list says so, because milk must be declared. The rest is shared machinery: most dark chocolate is made on lines that also run milk chocolate, which is where the 'may contain milk' on an 85 per cent bar comes from. Either way the lactose is in the milk solids rather than the fat, so the amount is small.

Dark chocolate's gluten route is barley malt extract, used as a flavour enhancer, and biscuit or wafer inclusions. Plain dark chocolate is cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter, with none - so this depends on the bar rather than on the type.

Dark chocolate is sweetened with sucrose, which splits into equal glucose and fructose - no excess is created. The higher the cocoa percentage the less sugar there is at all.

Dark chocolate carries more cocoa than milk chocolate and therefore more of everything the bean holds - but the starting figure is low enough that the difference does not change the answer. Chocolate came off the MAOI restriction lists when the two reviews narrowed them, and neither names cocoa among the foods that need restricting.