Health by chocolate

Finally, the words everyone has been waiting to hear: chocolate is good for you. But before you pop that Hershey’s Kiss® in your mouth, you should know that only one kind of chocolate can lower blood pressure and fight free radicals while tantalizing your taste buds with luscious pleasure. If you’re going to eat chocolate, make it dark. If you are over 50 and have mild blood pressure (115/75 is the level above which your risk of cardiovascular complications starts to increase), count yourself among the lucky who can eat dark chocolate to lower blood pressure. A study by Taubert et al. in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed six men and seven women aged 55 to 64 with mild blood pressure. After two weeks of eating 100 grams of either dark or white chocolate every day, researchers found that those who ate the dark chocolate experienced a significant decrease in blood pressure, whereas those who ate the white chocolate did not.

In addition to decreasing blood pressure, dark chocolate is also rich in the antioxidants found in fruit, red wine and black tea, which destroy free radicals, the dreaded little pests that cause heart disease, cancer and aging. In a recent study by the National Institute for Food and Nutrition in Rome, seven women and five men aged 25 to 35 were given 100 grams of dark chocolate, 100 grams of dark chocolate with a glass of whole milk or 200 grams of milk chocolate. One hour later, those who ate the dark chocolate by itself had the highest levels of antioxidants in their blood. This research suggests that dark chocolate is effective only when it stands alone. That means no tall glass of milk to wash down your truffles, so let that lovely flavor linger. It also means that the health benefits of chocolate are lost when dark chocolate is mixed with milk solids. So milk chocolate and white chocolate are still on the holidays-and-birthdays-only list.

Despite this exciting news, it’s important not to go overboard. It really takes only a small amount of good chocolate to satisfy a craving, lower blood pressure and increase antioxidant levels. Remember that chocolate is still high in fat and calories, so substitute it for other sweets and desserts you might have throughout the day. If only everything this delicious was good for you.