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Is Chocolate The New Health Food?

Posting Date: 08/21/2000

Other benefits of chocolate include reduced oxidation of dangerous LDL cholesterol. When LDL cholesterol is oxidized it forms plaque on artery walls more easily. In addition, cocoa flavonoids appear to relax artery walls. This may also reduce the risk of clots and arterial blockage.

Now, none of this good news is a license to go out and gobble down chocolate without regard for the consequences. Most chocolate treats are high in calories and fat. Overindulgence is likely to contribute to weight gain, and that is bad for the heart and for health in general.

But the old Puritan notion that anything tasting so good must be bad for you is being challenged. Research has shown that moderate wine drinkers reap benefits for their hearts and their brains. Both black and green tea are full of antioxidant flavonoids that are believed to lower cholesterol and the risk of cancer. (Even tea is not as rich in these compounds as chocolate is.)

Now that scientists are discovering how pleasures like tea, wine and chocolate can benefit health, we may have to give up the notion that medicine has to taste nasty to be good for us.