Health: Ain't That Sweet!

Go ahead, indulge yourself a little. Medical science has just cooked up two sweet reasons to eat chocolate--as long as it's dark chocolate. Two small studies published last week suggest that dark chocolate may offer such benefits as lower blood pressure and higher levels of disease-and age-defying chemicals called antioxidants. As if you needed an excuse.

Researchers have long known that cocoa beans contain a class of chemicals called flavonoids, which are also found in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. Previous studies suggest that flavonoids raise levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and act as potent antioxidants, protecting cells from free-radical damage, which can contribute to aging, heart disease and certain cancers.

In a study published in Nature, researchers asked 12 volunteers to eat dark chocolate only, dark chocolate with a glass of milk, or milk chocolate. An hour later, the dark-chocolate-only group showed an 18% increase in blood levels of antioxidants called epicatechins. Those in the latter two groups had no such change. "We suspect it's the proteins in the milk that the epicatechins are binding to, so they're not absorbed," says study co-author Alan Crozier of the University of Glasgow. "There is evidence that with tea, milk does something similar."

In another study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, German researchers found that eating dark chocolate lowered blood pressure in mildly hypertensive subjects. For two weeks, 13 volunteers were given daily doses of dark chocolate--about 480 calories' worth--or an equal amount of white chocolate, which has no flavonoids. In the dark-chocolate group, systolic blood pressure dropped five points, diastolic nearly two. White-chocolate eaters showed no significant improvements.

But before you binge on bars of Special Dark, remember that chocolate contains other, less salutary ingredients. "Chocolate is full of saturated fat," says Dr. Robert Eckel, chairman of the American Heart Association's Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism. "Even if dark chocolate were beneficial to your blood pressure, eating nearly 500 calories of chocolate a day may, in fact, increase the risk of heart disease rather than benefit it."

The plain truth is that chocolate's antioxidants and flavonoids are also found in more healthful packages--like fruits and vegetables--that offer nutrients, vitamins and fiber, none of which are in chocolate. Moderation, as always, is key. "You should not think that by gorging yourself on chocolate, you're going to be doing yourself any good," says Crozier. "But if you like chocolate anyway, make it dark chocolate, and it could well be healthy."

For more about chocolate, check out chocolateinfo.com