Just before Easter, I wrote an article explaining that chocolate — especially dark chocolate — does hold some nutritional value.

Women and children celebrated everywhere and chocolate bunnies nervously edged their way to the back of the shelf.

Fortunately this week’s question brings out another bright side of chocolate, so don’t put your head in the sand over this question — read on!

Question of the week: What is the nutritional value of the chocolate drink that is sold locally in the milk section? Does it provide much calcium, or is it too high in sugar to be beneficial? I am a teacher and many of my students have this daily with their lunch. — K. Camara

I was fully prepared to delicately impart bad tidings this week, but happily the news is mostly good. We’re clearly talking about Dunkley’s Dairy “chocolate low-fat drink” (chocolate milk) here — and while the nutrition label does give some information, I had to phone up Dunkley’s for the full scoop.

The milk used in this chocolate drink is two percent reconstituted milk. They then add cocoa powder, sugar and vitamins. Each 8oz serving (the smallest carton) contains 30g of carbohydrates.

However, while the carbohydrate value is listed, it is not clear how much of this is sugar. After throwing quantities such as 56lbs per 100 gallons at me, we eventually managed to work out that of this 30g of carbs, between 15 and 16g “sugars”.

To work out what this means in terms of teaspoons (because who can picture how much 16g of sugar actually is?) then follow this simple math.

Divide the total grams of “sugars” by four to get the approximate number of teaspoons of sugar. Therefore, an 8oz serving of chocolate milk with 16g sugars, contains approximately four teaspoons of sugar. Now an 8oz serving is very small — so four teaspoons is actually quite a lot (would you put it in your coffee?), but it’s actually still relatively low.

In reality, most 100 percent juices or fruit juice cocktails (and certainly all sugary sodas) contain at least this much sugar — and often much more.

This means, that comparatively the sugar content is ok. However, drinking four teaspoons of sugar in a chocolate drink is still only justifiable on two counts. Firstly, if children have chocolate milk, they should always always, only have the smallest 8oz serving.

It should also be their only sweet drink of the day — the rest of the time, it’s best to drink water. Moderation is key.

Secondly, although this drink has added sugar, other aspects of its nutrition are good. Even the small 8oz serving contains 35 percent of the US Recommended Daily Allowance for calcium and also a sound 8g of protein.

Calcium is critical for healthy teeth and bones and protein is essential for healthy growth and hormone balance. Further, protein also helps to slow the release of sugar into the bloodstream which is another advantage chocolate milk has over fruit juice.

Note, however, that I’m not saying that fruit juice is all bad. If it’s 100 percent juice, and if it’s a small 6-8oz serving, then it can take the place of one of the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables daily.

Fruit juice does contain powerful antioxidants that help to boost the immune system, but it’s even better if fruit can be eaten fresh — this way, overall sugar intake is lower and fibre intake is higher.

I’ll finish by saying this. While I hesitate to recommend something that contains added sugar, a small 8oz serving of chocolate milk can be a good way to increase the calcium/protein value of a student’s packed lunch — especially if a child is reluctant to drink milk plain.

Other components of a healthy school lunch would include: a wholegrain sandwich including quality protein (e.g. roast chicken), fresh fruit, a stick of cheese and a drink of water. I would suggest that parents avoid giving chocolate milk, cookies and other sugary items all together in one meal as this would result in sugar overload.

Sugar overload translates into poor concentration and bad behaviour in the classroom!

Thanks to Dunkley’s Dairy for being so co-operative and giving me all the information I needed. nThe advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns is a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist. She can be contacted at 291-4725 or clinicalnutrition[AT]gmail.com.