Should you indulge in chocolate for your health?



Who doesn’t love chocolate, especially dark chocolate?  Valentine’s Day just passed and many women got a box of chocolates from their special someone.  I was more than pleasantly pleased to see a box of chocolates waiting for me on Valentine’s Day morning.  So what do nutritionists say about chocolate?  Should you feel guilty with every piece from your assorted chocolate box?  Or can you say to yourself, why feel guilty, chocolate has some health benefits?  Can chocolate really be good for your health?  Jennifer Motl recently wrote about chocolate and had many encouraging things to say. 


  • Heart Disease and Chocolate:   Yes, chocolate does have some health benefits.  Dark chocolate has been shown to lower one’s risk of heart disease and stroke. What is in dark chocolate that has healthy benefits?   One is flavanols and a second are antioxidants.  Chocolate is rich in both and both help protect not only our hearts but also our blood vessels.   Moreover, chocolate is rich in the mineral magnesium.  This mineral helps keep our heart healthy and also helps the hormone insulin which controls how much sugar is in our blood.  
  • Weight and chocolate:  Even more surprisingly, those who eat chocolate are less likely to become obese.  How could that be?  A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that women who ate chocolate can lose weight, but it is small amounts of chocolate, not eating a pound of chocolate at a time. What chocolate did these women add to their diet?  Diet hot chocolate (which actually tastes really good) and 2 snacks of 50% chocolate candy.  But the chocolate snacks added only 90 calories to their diet so were not large portions of chocolate.   The Cleveland Clinic recommends moderate portions of chocolate, about 1 ounce, a few times a week. 
  •  How much chocolate?  So how much chocolate should you eat and how often.  Well many of us will be pleased with the recommendations of some Australian researchers which recommend we eat chocolate daily, yes, daily for our health.  Who can argue with that recommendation?  In another study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, participants who ate chocolate more than 5 times a week had a 57% lower risk of heart disease.  Another study found those who ate chocolate had more good HDL cholesterol and a lower risk of metabolic syndrome than those who hated chocolate.  


So what kind of chocolate is the best for one’s health?  Look for dark chocolate containing at least 60% cocoa and only 40% sugar and other ingredients.  

(For more information see Jennifer Motl’s article, “Indulge in Chocolate for Health's Sake.”   And “Is Chocolate Good for Your Heart?”)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stay Hydrated This Summer

Image
At long last, SUMMER!!    With the heat and humidity, we need to focus on staying hydrated.   Water is always a good choice for hydration.    MSN has an interesting article on  5 Easy Ways to Stay Hydrated This Summer .   Stay away from the sugar sweetened beverages loaded with sugar and calories.   Yes, enjoying some lemonade is fun but it is not a juice and it is loaded with added sugar.    What are some ways to stay hydrated?   How do you know you need hydration?   Thirst is the first sign of becoming dehydrated.   Your body is telling you to drink more fluids.   Eight cups is a good goal but you may need even more when exercising outside or being outside in the heat. Unsweetened Coffee – most people think coffee dehydrates you, but coffee is a fluid and can count towards your daily fluid intake.   And coffee can help you feel more alert and keep you energized.     Unsweetened Ice Tea – ice tea is a favorite in the South.    Skip the added sugar.   Or if you must have som
Read more

Easy food habits to adopt for a healthier you in 2023.

Image
So many people develop New Year’s Resolutions focusing on giving up things or on losing weight.   Why not focus on adopting some healthier habits in 2023 and some healthier lifestyle changes?   Last year I discussed some recommendation by a   nutritionist in London, Kate Llewellyn-Waters, on how you can adopt a healthier lifestyle.   Below are some of her easy-to- adopt suggestions and I have added some suggestions of my own. Protein at every meal – Protein is filling and helps stave off those hunger pains between meals.   What are some high quality protein foods?   All animal foods provide high quality protein.   Focus on lean proteins like chicken breasts.   Chicken and other lean meats, provide not only high-quality protein but also many nutrients like iron, zinc, selenium and many B vitamins.   B vitamins are known as the energy vitamins as they help your body produce the energy needed for all your activities.   A top-rated protein is found in eggs.   Actually, eggs are rated
Read more

Can probiotics help prevent COVID?

Image
COVID is in the news almost every day.   A new variant is popping up, etc.   The news recently was fascinating.   Are there foods or supplements that not only can help prevent COVID but also reduce symptoms?   Why hadn’t we heard this before?   You may have seen the many headlines about Probiotics can Reduce COVID Symptoms and Delay Disease .   Researchers at Duke University have come out with surprising findings about probiotics and COVID.    What did the Duke University study find about COVID and probiotics? Before COVID, researchers already knew that probiotics were helpful in preventing respiratory infections.   In March 2020, before many people had been vaccinated for COVID, Duke researchers studied unvaccinated individuals who had been exposed to COVID.   They studied 182 people, with half getting the probiotic lactobacillus and the other half taking a placebo pill.   Even though the research was cut short because study participants started to get vaccinated against COVID,
Read more