Healthy Chocolate Pudding Recipe

To begin, I freakin’ love pudding! The texture, the taste, the nostalgia it brings me. For real, what’s not to love about pudding? There’s all types; chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, tapioca, rice, bread pudding, and more! Unfortunately, store-bought pudding is a processed foods loaded with unnecessary sugar, chemicals, and preservatives. Alternatively, there’s other ways to enjoy a wholesome and delicious pudding; make it yourself. This healthy chocolate pudding recipe is a favorite of mine!

Definitely, I love how this recipe is so quick to make, it only takes about 5 minutes to come together! You can easily make it dairy-free if you desire. Also, you only need a handful of ingredients, all of which you can pronounce. Surely, you’ll enjoy how quick this recipe is to make!

No doubt, the thing I love about this pudding recipe the most is there’s no guilt about over-indulging on it! With just a few healthy ingredients, the main one is avocado, you can’t feel bad about eating too much! Did you know that an avocado is technically a fruit? It’s abundant in the healthy monounsaturated fatty acid that your body needs. As well as, rich in many B vitamins, vitamins C, E, & K, potassium, copper, folate, and more! Many call avocados a superfood for a reason!

Furthermore, the creamy consistency is very similar to those ‘classic’ pudding cups you probably ate as a kid. This part pleasantly surprised me when I made it the first time!

Indeed, some ingredients in pudding are freaky. When it comes to processed foods, you are paying a price. That price is in the form of chemicals, preservatives, and weird toxins that should not be consumed at all. Why they put some of this stuff in food is beyond me!

Below are a few ingredients from a typical pudding cup:

• Sugar– Some pudding cups range from 12g of sugar upwards of 18g per pudding cup! That’s a whole lot of sugar! By now, I think most people are aware that too much sugar leads to a host of health problems.
• Modified Corn Starch– Generally, anything with the term ‘modified’ warrants some caution. Modified corn starch is modified in one of two ways, either through oxidation or acid modification. If it’s modified through oxidation, then chemical agents such as chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate, or sodium hypochlorite are used. If modified through acid modification, then the starch mixes with water, they heat and treat it with a mild acid. When the desired state is reached, they neutralize the acid, then filter, wash and dry it. Something to keep in mind, when you see the vague term ‘modified’ on an ingredient list, you never really know what goes into making it.
• Palm Oil– Palm oil is fairly well-known for controversy. A large part is due to the severe deforestation of the rainforest! Another sad consequence of this is many animals, including orangutans, needlessly die. In fact, palm oil is the leading cause of orangutan extinction! Other animals such as elephants, rhinos and tigers are also at risk due to deforestation.
• Natural and Artificial Flavors– The term ‘natural flavor’ may include hundreds of different chemicals crammed into those two words. An artificial flavor is a chemical mixture that mimics a natural flavor. Both of these ingredients are manufactured in labs and you just don’t know what on earth you are actually consuming!
• Canola/Soybean/Sunflower Oil– Seed and vegetable oils are high in the inflammatory Omega-6 oils and increase oxidative stress which contributes to numerous chronic health conditions.
• Titanium Dioxide– This toxic chemical has no place in food whatsoever. According to this Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: “Titanium Dioxide may be a CARCINOGEN in humans. There may be no safe level of exposure to a carcinogen, so all contact should be reduced to the lowest possible level.”
• Artificial Dyes– Notably, California recently became the first State in the U.S. to ban Red Dye No.3. According to the EWG this dye is in over 3,200 different food products. This toxin is linked to various cancers, behavioral and neurological conditions, and respiratory and immune disorders. Other hazardous dyes include Yellow 5 and 6, Red 40, Blue 1, and Caramel coloring, to name a few.

So, then why is this sh*t in our food?!

Now, with all this in mind, here is the easy healthy chocolate pudding!

Chocolate Avocado Pudding Recipe

Yields: About 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 Over-Ripe Avocados
• 1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp Honey (or sweeten to taste)
• 1/2 Cup Milk of Choice
• A Pinch of Salt

Directions:

• Pit and peel avocados
• Add all ingredients to a small food processor and blend until smooth
• Cover tightly and chill in the fridge
• Will last about 4-5 days

Finally, enjoy this healthy chocolate pudding recipe! Take a look at these other delicious recipes- Creamy Dijon Dressing or Nutty Gnocchi.

Sources:

Eating too much sugar: Effects and symptoms (medicalnewstoday.com)

Modified Corn Starch: What is it and Why is it in Your Food? (foodconstrued.com)

https://orangutan.org/palmoil/

What is Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (E481) in Food & is SSL Vegan? (foodadditives.net)

How Do Artificial Flavors Work? | HowStuffWorks

Why Vegetable Oils Are Unhealthy – The Nutrition Insider

1861.pdf (nj.gov)

What to Know About California’s New Law Banning Food Additives, Including Red Dye No. 3 | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

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