Better Health & Living: Article: Health By Chocolate

Issue: December 2006

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Health By Chocolate

Isn't chocolate the devil in a shiny foil wrapper?

by Kathy Canavan

Published in food+nutrition •eating_right | 0 Comments, Talk about this article »

Charlize Theron relishes chocolate fudge cake. Uma Thurman feasts on chocolate fondue. Will Ferrell goes for double chocolate chip cookies. And the rest of us who aren’t in the movies buy $5 billion of the stuff every year.

But isn’t chocolate the devil in a shiny foil wrapper? New research says maybe not. Healthwise, this candy can be dandy—if it’s dark chocolate.

Chocolate has been a hit ever since the Olmec Indians of Central America started using it more than 2,400 years ago. With a melting point just below body temperature, it literally melts in your mouth. The astronauts took it into space. The U.S. Army puts it in its Meals Ready to Eat. And now, chocolate is getting brownie points for its abundance of flavanols (natural chemicals found in cocoa beans).

For years, chocolatiers tried to exorcise flavanols from their products because of the slightly bitter taste they impart. Now they’re doing an about-face, because researchers from Harvard to Holland are touting chocolate’s heart-healthy flavanols and plant sterols.

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A Chocolate a Day. . .

“Cocoa flavonoids have an aspirin-like effect on blood-clotting mechanisms that may reduce the formation of clots that lead to strokes and heart attacks,’‘ says Mary B. Engler, R.N., Ph.D., a heart and nutrition researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dark chocolate has more of two important flavanols than raspberries, blueberries, table wine, green tea, and other foods considered flavanol rich—a heaping 41.5 milligrams of circulation-boosting epicatechin and nearly 12 milligrams of catechin per 3.5 ounces. That’s five times the amount of epicatechin and 12 times the catechin found in the apple that keeps the doctor away.

Chocolate’s benefits don’t stop there. Its saturated fat is stearic acid, which doesn’t raise harmful LDL cholesterol as other saturated fats do, and its monounsaturated fat is the same type found in olive oil, Dr. Engler says. It may actually raise good HDL cholesterol.

If that’s not enough, Dr. Engler says the carbohydrates in chocolate can boost levels of serotonin and endorphins, chemicals that increase your sense of well-being.

That dark chocolate bar you’re eyeing also has small amounts of mood-altering chemicals that can lift depression and even produce mild euphoria. Don’t think “natural Prozac,” though. Dr. Engler says you would have to eat a prohibitively large chunk in one sitting to feel any effect.

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Say Yes to Chocolate, No to Pounds

Jackie Keller is the Los Angeles nutrition coach who helped Uma Thurman lose the baby fat after the birth of her son and get in shape for the action flick Kill Bill. She has also helped Susan Sarandon and Will Ferrell incorporate chocolate into their diets with no need for mea culpas.

“Deprivation sets us up for an unhealthy relationship with food. It’s better to have small amounts of healthy treats on a regular basis,” says Keller, whose own favorite is 12 to 14 Trader Joe’s semisweet chocolate chips right out of the bag. “Truthfully, most of our women clients do better by having a little bit of chocolate in their diets,” she says.

While some flavanol seekers may reach for no-cal supplements in a jar, Keller tells her clients that every compound that’s good for the body can be found in some form of food, and most of those nutrients are probably better in the original package. “We all have to go through life eating, so developing a healthy relationship with food is important,” she says. “The real trick is to find the most healthful natural package.”

When you’re talking chocolate, that means a very small amount of the best-quality dark stuff you can find. Two new super-chocolates—Dove Dark and CocoaVia, both made by Mars, Inc.—are processed in a way that preserves cocoa’s natural antioxidants. Whatever brand you buy, look for a high percentage of cocoa, low sugar, and absolutely no artificial sweetener.

Now the bad news: A single serving of chocolate, super or not, is one ounce. That’s about two-thirds of a standard-size Hershey bar. Seem small? That’s when pedigree matters. “The better the quality, the less it’s going to take to satisfy you,” Keller says. “There are chocolate recipes that are good for you, but that’s not a green light to have as much as you want and, you know, damn the torpedoes.”

Even one ounce, consumed a couple of times a week, will add unwanted weight if you don’t do what Keller’s famous clients do—cut 200 calories somewhere else or add a hefty helping of exercise. To work off that ounce of chocolate, you’ll need to walk at a brisk pace for about an hour. BHL

Chocoholic Kathy Canavan is a freelance writer in Wilmington, Delaware.

Chocolate Nibs?

If you don’t want to exercise or cut calories elsewhere in your diet to accommodate some daily chocolate, you may be better off reaching for other flavanol-rich foods to get the same benefits without the extra fat.

The trend among celebrity foodies, says heart and nutrition researcher Mary Engler, R.N., Ph.D., is to skip the chocolate bar altogether and eat chocolate in its crunchy raw form—bits of broken cocoa seeds called cacao nibs. (You can find them at Amazon.com, but be prepared to pay a hefty price—more than $40 for a 2.5-pound bag.)
If you’re not into chocolate (what planet are you from?) or don’t want to go into hock for a substitute, you can get your flavanols from berries, apples, red cabbage, apricots, green and black tea, celery, onions, kale, broccoli, orange and grapefruit juice, or fresh citrus fruits.