If you happen to be a "chocoholic," there is some good news for you: some chocolate is not only not as unhealthy as previously thought, but many doctors now actually encourage the public to consume it. One particular type of chocolate can be beneficial to your gums, eyes, heart, arteries and even your entire immune system. It can also help lower cholesterol levels and balance both blood pressure and blood sugar. However, before you run out to buy candy bars in bulk, know that not just any kind of chocolate will provide such benefits.
Dark chocolate, created from natural cocoa beans, has been recommended for consumption even up to three times a day. This is because the cocoa bean is the food with the highest levels of antioxidants ever, which protect the body from oxidative stress involved with aging. Other foods, such as red wine, tea, and select few fruits and vegetables also offer similar health benefits, but cocoa still tops them all when it comes to the sheer number of antioxidants. These antioxidant compounds are called flavanols, which presumably supply dark chocolate its health benefits.
Ironically, flavanols actually taste very bitter, so many companies that make candy bars take out most of the flavanols to make the chocolate taste better. This obviously strips the chocolate of most of its health benefits. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing which candy bar is healthiest, as companies do not indicate how many flavanols are left in the final product. This is why buying dark chocolate candy bars simply to get the health effects may not work.
Also keep in mind that milk chocolate does not render the same health perks. The darker the chocolate, the more flavonoids containing flavanols there are, meaning that milk chocolate offers fewer health benefits than dark chocolate. Clearly this indicates that white chocolate offers even fewer; in fact, it contains no flavonoids.
The best way to take advantage of the health benefits offered in dark chocolate is to buy the darkest chocolate available with the least amount of added ingredients, perhaps from a health food store. Another option is to buy one of the recent products in which dark chocolate is infused with the açaí berry, an antioxidant that helps reduce heart and vascular disease. Dark chocolate and açaí go together well because both have a magnitude of antioxidants, and açaí helps flavanol-filled dark chocolate taste delicious.
But even if you find such a product, realize that it is not a wonder drug. Despite its health benefits, dark chocolate still contains calories and some fat, and an excess of either is unhealthy. Even too many dark chocolate and açaí products can be harmful. This is why doctors recommend some dark chocolate, red wine, or other treats that have some health benefits daily, but do advise patients to limit their intake, as too much of anything can be detrimental.
It is great news that research has found a food that lowers blood pressure and is healthy for the heart and maybe more. The problem is that the chocolate Americans consume most is not the kind that was studied. The more popular kinds of chocolate have little or no positive effect on your health. Only certain chocolate may be healthy.
Dark chocolate is the chocolate that was found to have positive effects on blood pressure. Participants, either given dark, milk, or white chocolate every day were evaluated in different studies. It turns out that dark chocolate contains important antioxidants called phenols. These natural compounds from the cocoa bean are known to increase nitric oxide, reduce platelet aggregation, and inhibit oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Cocoa can decrease blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and increase your insulin sensitivity. Milk and white chocolate are low in these antioxidants and do not have the same effect.
The problem is how chocolate is processed in this country. White chocolate, regardless of where you get it, actually contains no cocoa at all and is made only from cocoa butter; just the fat from the cocoa beans. It also contains no phenols. Most of the other chocolate we eat is made with "dutched" cocoa. The cocoa beans are treated with an alkaline solution to make them dark in color and reduce the natural bitterness from the plant. But it also reduces almost 90% of the phenols and most of its healthy benefits. The other problem is that when made into milk chocolate, the milk seems to prevent the phenols from being absorbed and, thus, negating any possible benefit from the chocolate.
The best chocolate for your health appears to be dark chocolate. In the European studies done, participants ate 100gm of chocolate a day (100 grams equals approx. 3.5 ounces). This is the equivalent to 2 1/2 regular size Hershey's bars. It also added about 550 calories to their diet. They were instructed to substitute this amount of calories from other foods they normally ate each day. You would have to do the same or forego its healthy benefits by increasing your waistline. European chocolate in general is healthier than that found in America due to the fact that it is less processed than ours and contains more of the heart healthy antioxidants. Dark chocolate is an acquired taste for most Americans since it is much more bitter than its milky counterpart.
So why is this research being touted as the 'best medical news in ages'? It appears to be one more way we look to justify the unhealthy diets we follow. When people hear that chocolate is now healthy, they don't hear any of the other restrictions involved, and don't want to. In fact, most people wouldn't want to change to a more bitter tasting chocolate and also cut out over 500 calories from their diets as they did in the studies. Our diets already have enough sweets and this type of news only fuels the diabetic and obesity epidemics. This kind of medical news will only make most people add extra calories to their diets and increase their health problems.
These studies do look promising but there still is no information on how long these benefits last, how many phenols need to be eaten or how often. Stick with the darkest chocolate, if you must, and balance out your calories. Until we have more information, chocolate should remain a treat and not a treatment.
Both Don Downes & Gerald Meyer are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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