Introduced in 1971, Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar has become part of our chocolate culture. This is good: The Cleveland Clinic and others suggest that people eat several small servings of chocolate a week to get needed flavonoids. Flavonoids are antioxidants that may help prevent heart disease by lowering plaque formation in arteries.
Calories and Fat
According to the Hershey's website, a single 41 g Special Dark chocolate bar has 180 calories. While the calorie count isn't treacherous as snack foods go, the fat makes one think twice. Eight of the 12 g of fat in this product are saturated fats. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fats to less than 7 percent of daily calories. If you consume 2,000 calories a day, only 140 of them should come from saturated fats. Those 140 calories are equal to approximately 16 grams of saturated fats. By eating this candy bar, you use 50 percent of your daily allotment for saturated fats. That doesn't leave much room to enjoy saturated fats in meals.
Fiber
The Harvard School of Public Health says people should consume 14 g of fiber for every 1,000 calories. Given that the Hershey's website notes that there are 3 g of fiber for 180 calories, Special Dark satisfies this perfectly, as 1,000 calories of the chocolate would have 16 g fiber. There is no need to compensate by eating high fiber foods if you indulge in chocolate.
Protein
The Hershey's website reports that a 41 g bar of Special Dark has 2 g of protein. No one would argue that chocolate should be consumed as a primary source of protein: These 2 g satisfy only 4 percent of the daily need. If you are looking for a high protein snack, consider other foods such as yogurt or dry-roasted soybeans.
Vitamins and Minerals
With no vitamin C or calcium, it would be easy to write chocolate off as empty calories. However, according to the Hershey's website, a 41 g bar supplies 10 percent of the daily required iron. While there are other ways of getting iron that don't have as much saturated fat, such as such as tofu, molasses and raisin-bran cereal, you can take heart if you indulge that you are also supplying needed iron.
Sodium
With only 15 mg of sodium, Hershey's Special Dark is naturally low in sodium. The American Heart Association suggests that people limit their sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day -- 100 times more than the sodium content in a bar of Special Dark. Such low sodium content is unusual in a snack food.
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