Chocolate

Happy Easter! Along with this weekend being a very important religious holiday, this time of the year has an intimate relationship with chocolate. When our children think of Easter the first thing that often comes to mind is the chocolate they will receive. Chocolate is everywhere! In every store one enters there are mounds of chocolate waiting to be bought and consumed.

If you have begun to think that chocolate is a health food, think again! The reason some of us are lead to believe that chocolate is healthy is the fact that cocoa contains compounds called flavonoids which have antioxidant properties. These flavonoids that are found in cocoa are indeed healthy and can help reduce one's risk of developing cancer and heart disease.

The problem is that the common milk chocolate that is widely available and given/received at Easter is not just cocoa. The cocoa has been processed and this not only reduces the amount of flavonoids found in the chocolate but now the processed chocolate contains unhealthy levels of saturated fat, sugar and calories. In 35g of milk chocolate (just over an ounce) there is about 10 grams of fat or more, most of which is saturated, and 180 calories. This is half a day’s worth of saturated fat and a tenth my calories for the day - all in a few mouthfuls!

So while you pop this type of bite-sized morsel into your mouth, think about it. And next time maybe reach for the dark chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa to satisfy that chocolate craving. At least you will be consuming more flavonoids and less sugar than milk chocolate. More of the good stuff and less of the bad – isn’t that what we all strive for?


References:

Ki Won Lee, Young Jun Kim, Hyong Joo Lee, and Chang Yong Lee. Cocoa Has More Phenolic Phytochemicals and a Higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine. J. Agric. Food Chem., 2003, 51 (25), pp 7292–7295

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/health/chocolate.html