Posted on 01/31/2011 6:07:44 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
I hate to sound like the cover of some woman’s magazine, but today we’re going to talk about “The Sweet Science Behind Dark Chocolate” and “What Eating Dark Chocolate Can Do For You.”
Scientists are my new best friends. At first, I thought those headlines were just stuck at the top to make me want to read the e-mail that followed. Maybe whoever was contacting the media was just trying to lure in candy-loving journalists with a chocolate-coated bait-and-switch press release that eventually got around to talking about health insurance reform.
But, no, chocolate apparently is a “super food.”
“Studies show that people who eat generous amounts of superbly heart-healthy and flavonoid-rich cocoa rarely develop high blood pressure and have a very low death rate from heart disease,” read the e-mail.
I haven’t the slightest idea what a flavonoid is, but I just ran downstairs to the snack room to chow down on a candy bar and guzzle a cup of machine-made hot chocolate.
You’ve got to love a health motto that starts with “A Kit Kat a day...”
Daily ritual
A daily intake of chocolate is exactly what Janet Bond Brill, the registered dietitian who was being quoted in this e-mail, was espousing.
She’s got a book out, “Prevent A Second Heart Attack: 8 Foods, 8 Weeks to Reverse Heart Disease.” And cocoa is one of these foods. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate being handed this medically sound reason to practically slather my insides with melted chocolate.
“Consuming just one or two squares (up to one ounce) of dark chocolate (at last 70 percent cocoa) every day can help boost your blood-antioxidant level, lower your blood pressure, fight inflammation (and) make your dysfunction endothelium more functional,” read the release.
Now, in my younger and less health-conscious days, it would have bothered me that I didn’t know anything about “dysfunction endothelium.” I might have even argued, “My endothelium is fully functional, thank you. In fact, I have to hold it back.”
But, after reading this e-mail, I figure, hey, the dietitian lady doesn’t seem concerned, so just eat the Hershey’s bar and let the chocolate sort it all out.
The chocolate diet
Maybe I’m overreacting, but I may eat nothing but chocolate. If one or two pieces of chocolate heal your heart, might 30 or 35 or even 40 pieces make a guy practically immortal?
I knew there was a catch.
“Purchase one of the new high-flavonoid chocolate bars (not milk chocolate or Dutch processed) at least 70 percent cocoa and limit yourself to one or two small pieces a day,” Brill said.
No Snickers?
If you want cocoa itself, “think real cocoa,” she insisted. “Add a couple of tablespoons of dark cocoa powder to your banana and soy milk smoothie — a luscious addition to a heart-healthy drink.”
Soy? Some things just have a sound that makes you not want to live forever...
HOW funny....just this morning....I was craving a “FAT PILL” as we call them.....an apple fritter.....which I don’t indulge in very often...I looked around the kitchen and promised myself....if you do NOT go get a FAT PILL..you can have all the chocolate (dark) you want today....and I have! Figured it was MUCH better than an apple fritter. I HAVE stockpiled some chocolate in powder form....we do LOVE the LINDT 85% chocolate bars! Walmart has the best price right now. And, furthermore, I had a doctor tell me several years ago that dark chocolate (in moderation) WAS good for me.
Have you ever had those Belgian chocolate hazelnut thingies from Trader Joe’s? How about Nutella?
More thank you’s up to the Creator!
No doubt! I keep a bar of 70% Lindt w/orange on hand for just such ‘nutritional emergencies’! :)
The last thing I’d give up if times were really tough would be my chocolate. :)
I also invest in The Vice Fund. The last things others give up in hard times are booze, gambling and smokes. As an added bonus they invest in military defense, too! :)
Thanks for your reply!
I’m sort of getting into eating a lot of meat these days and staying away from as many carbs as I can.
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