Update on Chocolate

This year, a report from a major international scientific conference on chocolate finally revealed why we human beings crave chocolate so much. Their scientific, technical finding? “We…conclude that we like chocolate because it tastes so nice.”

Medically, last year a randomized controlled crossover study from Yale examining, “Acute dark chocolate…ingestion.” And people got paid for that, too.

The researchers found that the sugar in chocolate isn’t good for you; the fat in chocolate—the cocoa butter—isn’t good for you; but the actual cacao bean solids, which are sold as cocoa powder, is great stuff, leading the Journal of the American Heart Association this year to conclude that “cocoa itself…can be recommended without hesitation.”

Ah, but which is healthier—cocoa, or the Dutch processed cocoa?

Some of you may need to go back to the basics. We have cocoa, and we have processed cocoa. And when you process food, you lose nutrients.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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• F. Visioli, H. Bernaert, R. Corti, C. Ferri, S. Heptinstall, E. Molinari, A. Poli, M. Serani, H. J. Smit, J. A. Vinson, F. Violi, and R. Paoletti. Chocolate, lifestyle, and health. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 49(4):299-312, 2009.
• Z. Faridi, V. Y. Njike, S. Dutta, A. Ali, and D. L. Katz. Acute dark chocolate and cocoa ingestion and endothelial function: A randomized controlled crossover trial. American journal of clinical nutrition, 88(1):58, 2008.
• R. Corti, A. J. Flammer, N. K. Hollenberg, and T. F. Luscher. Cocoa and cardiovascular health. Circulation, 119(10):1433-1441, 2009.

Image thanks to La.blasco via Flickr.

• chocolate
• cocoa
• dark chocolate
• fat
• junk food
• processed foods
• saturated fat
• sugar