Sunday, February 15, 2015

The Health Benefits of Chocolate

So limit yourself to 7 ounces per week (about two large dark-chocolate bars), say researchers at the University of California, San Francisco who studied the benefits of chocolate for heart health. For example, 1-1/2 ounces of Scharffen Berger extra-dark chocolate (with 82% cacao content) has about 260 calories and 19 grams of fat.

Look for chocolate with more cocoa and little added sugar, called "bittersweet" (with 75%-99% cacao) or "semisweet" (with 50%-69%). Cocoa nibs (100% cacao) have about 130 calories per ounce and 13 grams of fat. Milk chocolate contains just 10%-49% cacao, and lacks the healthful flavanol benefits, Ding says.

If a bar says "65% cacao," that means it has 65% bean solids and 35% sugar. (Learn where else hidden sugar lurks ^[1].)

So how does chocolate help your body? Let us count the ways.

Health benefit of chocolate #1: Lowers heart attack risk.
Eating about 2 tablespoons of dark chocolate daily lowers your risk of a heart attack or stroke by 39%, according to an 8-year German study of 19,357 adults, published in the European Heart Journal in 2010.

It raises levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol, the study found.

And cocoa's flavanols widen blood vessels, reduce blood pressure and also loosen platelets, preventing them from clumping and restricting blood flow, like low-dose aspirin does, according to a 2006 Johns Hopkins University study.

How much to eat: One square of dark chocolate per day, according to the German study's authors.