Chocolate benefits

Chocoholics rejoice! Now you can enjoy chocolate ice cream and cake, creamy rich candy bars and the moist chewy wonder of brownies knowing that they are doing something good for your body. Surely, all the women of America cheered at the recently released results of a study funded by the American Cocoa Research Institute. The month-long study found that 1.25 ounces of chocolate a day reduces the body’s LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) by eight points. That is about the same amount of cocoa contained in a chocolate bar.
Because I read this wonderful news on pay day, I immediately went out and bought brownies, rich chocolate cocoa mix, a sack of chocolate candies, and – for the diabetics in my life – a package of chocolate, sugar free wafers. It was about time the News-Times staff had a healthy snack.
On the way to the grocery store, I met a couple friends to whom I announced the good news. At the end of my announcement the first looked at me rather puzzled. I explained to her, a fellow chocolate aficionado, “which all means that I am having chocolate cake for dessert tonight!”
The second friend laughed knowingly, “Yes, I saw that on TV. The woman was dipping her brownie into a cup of coca and sighing … ‘this is sooo good.’”
If you don’t like chocolate, or think you really must count calories and just want the healthy factor in the cocoa – the healthy secret hidden in the cocoa is the flavonoids which help reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol – a process that contributes to awful stuff like atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. They are also found in teas and healthy stuff like apples, onions, beans and grapes. But why consume them for flavonoids when chocolate tastes so much better?
The news release included a statement from Kris-Etherton, a Penn State professor of nutrition and the lead researcher in the study who stodgily said, “While the research appears to show that chocolate might not be as unhealthy as people once thought …. fruits and vegetables still should be the basis of a healthy diet.” He added insult to injury by adding, “I don’t even know if I would go so far as to say chocolate is good for you. Certainly I would say it has some good things in it. I wouldn’t go out and tell people to get all their antioxidants in chocolate — I’d tell them to get their antioxidants in fruits and vegetables — but a little bit of chocolate is something that you can include in your diet.”
Man! Some people are such wet blankets. I needed a reason to eat chocolate. After the stress of the past couple of months, my brain could use the serontonin release afforded by a good ole’ chocolate candy bar. With a depressed economy and a downer of a mood, the last thing I needed to hear was a reminder to sit up straight and eat my vegetables. Yuck!
Besides, candy, cake, cocoa and other chocolate confections cost more per pound than carrots, cabbage, crab apples and lettuce. Since the president urged us to help out the economy by investing in America it is time to do your patriotic duty. Go, buy a candy bar, and enjoy good health today.