New Delhi, July 7 -- Chocolate carries a reputation it has never entirely earned. The parental dread runs along familiar lines, cavities, the sugar rush that flattens an appetite before dinner, the overtired child who then refuses to settle at night. Almost all of that comes down to sugar, and sugar is added to chocolate during manufacturing. The amount is a commercial decision and varies widely across products. Cocoa, on its own, is a seed with real merit. It carries a little fibre, a group of plant antioxidants called flavanols, and the bitterness that any good bar is built around.

How to give chocolates to kids?

Trouble begins only when sugar is piled on and crowds out the rest. "The sensible task for a parent, then, is a modest one:...