Perhaps you've waited all your life to hear chocolate is good for you. The University of Michigan Integrative Medicine's Healing Foods Pyramid now includes chocolate, and the American Heart Association states that a piece of dark chocolate per day may be good for your heart, lower your blood pressure and help in regulating blood sugar. AHA does caution, however, that moderation is key.
Dark Chocolate
Not all chocolate is made equal, although all chocolate is made from the beans of the cocoa tree, or Theobroma cacao. The beans are harvested, fermented, dried and roasted before they are ground to make cocoa cake or liquor. Cocoa cake is processed into cocoa powder and cocoa liquor becomes cocoa butter. The liquor and cocoa butter mixed with sugar and vanilla makes chocolate. If milk is added it becomes milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has a higher percentage of cocoa butter, at least 60 percent. It is also known as bittersweet and semisweet chocolate.
Flavinoids
The darker the chocolate, the more flavonoids in the chocolate. Flavonoids appear to be in the cocoa butter. They belong to the the family of polyphenols, a type of antioxidant. Flavonoids are scavengers of free radicals, natural by-products of metabolism that cause damage and disease to other cells. Avoid dark chocolate that is made from coconut oil or palm oil. Cocoa butter, although high in saturated fat, the fat is in the form of stearic acid. Stearic acid has no effect on cholesterol.
Chocolate and High Blood Pressure
The flavonoids in dark chocolate also promote the relaxation of your arteries, which may help reduce blood pressure. A 2010 review on dark chocolate and high blood pressure in the journal "BMC Medicine," analyzed studies from 1955 to 2009 that had studied chocolate's effect on blood pressure, allowing for treatment, age, blood pressure and other criteria. It looked at 15 trials that concluded definitively that dark chocolate reduced blood pressure. However, they uncovered other studies that could not conclusively support the claim. This lead the analysis to conclude that dark chocolate does reduce blood pressure, but not much below the current marker of prehypertension, 140/80 mmHG.
Chocolate Concerns
The most obvious concern of chocolate consumption is the temptation to overdo it, which may lead to weight gain. Chocolate does contain caffeine. If you are sensitive to caffeine, dark chocolate has significant amounts of it. For individuals with gout or other kidney related conditions, be aware that chocolate contains oxalates. Oxalates are compounds that may be excreted by urine to form kidney stones. If migraines are a problem, chocolate contains tyramine. Some migraine sufferers are sensitive to tyramine, as it may trigger an event.
