News In Health – Dark Chocolate Is Good For You!
As a chocolate lover, I feel that any news saying that chocolate is good for you is good news indeed. Unfortunately, the beneficial effects of chocolate don’t give us a license to eat as much as we want anytime we want. It also doesn’t pertain to every kind of chocolate on the planet.
Good For Your Heart
On any Valentine’s Day sweethearts are given heart shaped boxes of candy. Turns out chocolate is actually good for your heart scientifically too!
It works like this –
- The high amounts of antioxidants contained in the cocoa seeds, in particular flavonoids and other kinds of poly-phenols, have beneficial effects on the inflammatory state of a body.
- This chronic inflammatory state represents a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, from myocardial infarction (heart attack) to stroke, just to mention the major diseases.
- Keeping the inflammation process under control has become a major issue for prevention programs.
- Eating chocolate helps reduce the inflammation process, and thereby helps your heart
Sweet!
Type Of Chocolate Crucial
I’m afraid that sweet doesn’t pertain to the chocolate itself however. It doesn’t mean you can scarf down a Snickers bar every day and help your heart at the same time. Sorry, but that’s a no-no. For one thing, there’s a whole lot more to candy bars than just chocolate, with all the sugar and hydrogenated fats.
Secondly, this good news applies to DARK chocolate only. It doesn’t work with milk chocolate as the milk interferes with the absorption of polyphenols, so you don’t get the antioxidants needed to help the reduce the inflammatory process.
The bottom line here is to beware of health claims for any chocolate but dark chocolate.
Prescribed Amount of Chocolate For Good Health
The best effect is obtained by consuming an average amount of 6.7 grams of chocolate per day. Since most dark chocolate bars are 100 grams, that means that eating just a little less than half a bar of chocolate each week is actually a prescription for better health.
Now, how long until some smart chocolate manufacturer starts making dark chocolates bars with squares of the prescribed 6.7 gram size? Instead of the usual 8 squares, they could have bars with 14 smaller squares, and since they can claim it’s for your health, charge twice as much for the chocolate. (I hope there aren’t any chocolate makers reading this, but if you do, can I get a royalty for the idea?)
Seriously, all you need is a bar of plain dark chocolate, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the better, and the less sugar and saturated fat, the better. And remember, just eat about half a 100g bar a week.
Chocolate, in careful moderaton, does your heart good.
Journal of Nutrition, October 2008
