Many like to give chocolate as a holiday gift but if you are gifting something that is dark chocolate you might not be giving the person on your Christmas list a safe gift.

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Dark Chocolate

Molten chocolate swirl with dark chocolate - top view
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Dark chocolate is a form of chocolate that is a mixture of cocoa solids and cocoa butter with no milk or butter used like in milk chocolate.

chocolate truffle candy background - focus only on front truffles
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During holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day, giving the gift of sweets is pretty common with chocolate being one of the most popular.

Macro close-up of a gift box of gourmet chocolates.
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Many chocolate gifts come in boxes with a variety of chocolate choices from milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. Not everyone has a taste for dark chocolate because in the mixed box of chocolates I have seen, almost always the dark chocolate pieces are left uneaten.

Homemade Chocolate Dipped Strawberries Ready to Eat
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Even though dark chocolate is not as popular as milk chocolate, there are people who love it, or companies wouldn't make it and sell it.

I do have a little concern with chocolate overall because experts say it is unsafe for dogs and bears to eat who will pretty much eat anything but ok for humans to eat.

Dark Chocolate Contains Heavy Metals

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REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
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I wish I would have known this before I ate those dark chocolate truffles the other day and I would have given them the truffle shuffle to the trash.

Guilermo Legaria Schweizer/Getty Images
Guilermo Legaria Schweizer/Getty Images
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Normally when I think of heavy metal it's Judas Priest that comes to mind but that only goes in my ears and not my guts.

According to FOX 17 experts are finding high levels of heavy metals in dark chocolate. What experts mean by heavy metals is cadmium or lead which are both toxic. Long-term exposure to small amounts of heavy metals can cause a litany of health problems.

How Do The Heavy Metals Get In Dark Chocolate?

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San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
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One piece of good news for dark chocolate makers is, they are not putting in heavy metals they actually come naturally from the soil in which the cocoa plant is grown in. On the other side of that coin, it's the dark chocolate makers' responsibility to reduce the number of heavy metals that get in the chocolate.

If you love dark chocolate the suggestion is to eat a lot less or none at all.

Gold and red Christmas gift
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If you are giving chocolate as a holiday gift, do your family and friends a favor and maybe go with milk chocolate or a fruit basket.

Instead of milk and cookies, what would adults leave out for santa?

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