Chocolate Unwrapped Health Article

As it turns out, chocolate had been given a bum rap, nutritionists now say. Most of the saturated fat in chocolate is a form called stearic acid, which doesn’t increase cholesterol levels as much as other saturated fats. The unsaturated part is made up of monounsaturated fatty acids, the kind found in olive oil, which may actually help tame cholesterol levels. In 1993, researchers at Penn State found that when volunteers eating an average American diet treated themselves to 10 ounces of chocolate a day—more than half a pound!—in the form of both cocoa and dark chocolate, their cholesterol didn’t climb a notch, even though more than 80 percent of their fat calories came from chocolate. The same team of experts looked to see what happened to LDL ("bad") cholesterol when volunteers ate a 1.6-ounce milk chocolate bar in place of another high-carbohydrate snack. The answer: nothing. LDL remained unchanged. More recently, the Penn State team showed that volunteers who added chocolate to their usual diets actually saw an increase in HDL, or "good" cholesterol, and a reduction in the oxidation of LDL—both signs of improved cardiovascular health.

Chocolate isn’t the first once-banished food to be invited back into the kitchen after the all-fat-is-bad era came to a welcome end. For a long time nutritionists advised steering clear of nuts because of their high fat content; now we know their oils are mostly unsaturated. Avocados were also shunned because of their fat—until studies showed that they contain mostly heart-healthy fats and other substances that may improve cardiovascular health. Now, it seems, it is chocolate’s turn.

How Much Is Too Much?

The latest findings probably aren’t a reason to start eating chocolate if you don’t already. You’ll get many of the same disease-fighting substances drinking tea or wine and eating fruits and vegetables, especially apples or berries, which are loaded with proanthocyanidins. Chocolate, because it is relatively high in fat and is usually sweetened with sugar, does pack a fair amount of calories. A 1.5-ounce bar of dark chocolate contains about 225 calories—enough to make it a special treat, not a regular food group. If you’re not a purist, you can cut those calories by buying artificially sweetened chocolate.

Even the occasional piece of chocolate may offer a surprising amount of protection. In an almost too-good-to-be-true study published in the British Medical Journal in 1998, Harvard University scientists found that men who indulged a sweet tooth for candy now and then lived almost a year longer than those who abstained. The study didn’t distinguish between chocolate and other forms of candy. Still, the researchers wrote, "One plausible explanation for our observations may be the presence of antioxidant phenols in chocolate." Like most experts, however, they counseled moderation. Mortality was lowest among men who ate candy just one to three times a month. Men who ate candy more often got less benefit. Men who ate no candy, however, had the highest mortality overall.

Carl Keen was more generous. As long as you don’t have to worry about your weight, he told me, you can probably help yourself to a small piece of chocolate every day and be healthier for it. "If you already love chocolate, which I happen to, it’s reassuring to know it’s actually pretty good for you—and one more way to keep antioxidant levels high." At U.C. Davis, he and his team are now looking at the longer-term effects of a daily piece of chocolate. When I asked if I could volunteer for one of his studies, he laughed as if he thought I was joking. "One of the great things about studying chocolate is that there’s no shortage of volunteers right here at the university," he said. "And we don’t have to worry about compliance. Lots of studies have trouble getting volunteers to do what you ask. That’s not a problem for us."

Aim for 70 Percent

For those of us who have to find our own chocolate, what’s the smartest choice? In one of those happy alignments of taste and health, the finest-quality chocolate turns out to be the best for you.

First, a little background. After cocoa beans are harvested and roasted, the oil, or cocoa butter, is separated from the other parts of the bean, called cocoa solids. Later they are recombined during the process of making chocolate, with the addition of sugar. The more cocoa solids chocolate contains, the darker the chocolate and the more intense the flavor. The more sugar added, the sweeter. White chocolate is made with cocoa butter but none of the solids, so it has the consistency of chocolate but not the flavor.

Unfortunately, some commercially produced chocolates contain added milk fats and even hydrogenated vegetable oils, also known as trans fats, which are cheaper than cocoa butter but raise bad-cholesterol levels. Many have emulsifiers added to smooth texture. Some even contain artificial flavors. The purest chocolate, like the kind sold at Durig’s, is composed of only three things: cocoa butter, cocoa solids and sugar. And there’s good reason for that. The fats in cocoa butter are easier on the arteries, of course, but they also give chocolate its characteristic texture, since cocoa butter melts at body temperature—the reason the best chocolate literally melts in your mouth. Cocoa solids give chocolate its complex flavor, and they also contain the flavonols that offer such potent protection against heart disease. The more real cocoa the chocolate contains, as Madame Durig told me, the healthier it is.

By reading the label, you’ll know when the fat in chocolate is pure cocoa butter or if other fats have been added. Some chocolates tell you the relative percentages of cocoa butter, cocoa solids and sugar. A chocolate bar with 70 percent cocoa solids will list cocoa beans or one of their derivatives—cocoa solids, chocolate liquor—as the first ingredient on the label. One that lists sugar first means the cocoa makes up less than 50 percent of the bar.