All dark chocolate not good for the heart

  • Author: Bijoy Johnson
  • Filed under: Health Buzz
  • Date: Dec 26,2007

dark-choc-2.jpg

Photo by f10n4

An editorial in The Lancet reminds us that all dark chocolates are not created equal!

A lot of studies have shown that Dark chocolate is good for the heart. This is because they contain lots of flavinoids - antioxidants which helps to reduce the oxidative damage to our body. (For knowing more about the benefits of dark chocolate, read my earlier post - A dark chocolate a day keeps the cardiologist away!)

fruits-vegetables.jpg

Photo by karimian

But the truth is that dark chocolate need not necessarily contain flavinoids. As flavinoids taste bitter, some companies remove the flavinoids from dark chocolate to make them taste better. All that remains is fat and sugar and there is no health benefit whatsoever. Most companies do not reveal the content of flavinoids in their products and we have no way for finding out whether they are heart healthy or not. (Unless ofcourse you send them for analysis in a lab!) So the bottom line is, if you cant find a label describing the amount of flavinoids in the chocolate, you better stick to the traditional heart healthy diet - a balanced diet low in sugar, salt and fat, with lots of fruits and vetgetables.

Reference: The Lancet;

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17 Responses for "All dark chocolate not good for the heart"

  1. Jay a.k.a. 'Dat' January 3rd, 2008 at 7:08 am

    Damn, I gotta start reading your blog more often, the holiday eating got to me! LOL!

    But thanks for commenting for some link love, feel free to tell anyone that wants it too!

    Happy New Years!

    Jay
    DatMoney.com
    DatCurious.com

  2. Rachel January 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Great post!
    I adore dark chocolate and not just for the benefits. :-) I really like the ‘bitterness’ of it and can tell if they’ve removed the flavinoids. Thanks for the tips! great site!

  3. lina January 5th, 2008 at 7:09 am

    thanks for the tip! Sometimes we read an article about health benefits of certain food and we scramble to eat them, when most probably the processed food that we by actually contains none of the value we read about.

  4. Angie January 5th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    I love dark chocolate. So I told myself that since my favorite chocolate, Lindt Truffles, were the 60% cocoa ones, they were good for me… ntil my son grabbed them and read the label and pointed out to me that 1/3 of my saturated fat for the day was in a serving of them.

    Oh well… guess I’ll have some fruit instead! :)

  5. Woobie January 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    i guess im sticking with coffee then. :D thanks for the info.

  6. Perfusionist January 8th, 2008 at 1:33 am

    And what about Red wine ?

  7. aries_arevalo_ax January 8th, 2008 at 5:36 am

    hmm… This site gives good information about how to keep healthy. Wonderful!

  8. James n_n January 8th, 2008 at 6:58 am

    I have been looking for a site quite like this! Glad i found this, I really enjoy dark chocolate… yum yum, nice to know its good for my heart!! :)

    http://lunchmaniac.blogspot.com

    try to visit my blog some time, but not all food found there are good for the heart though >_<

  9. Karen January 14th, 2008 at 6:37 am

    I absolutely love dark chocolate. I have read about its many benefits lately and have enjoyed a few pieces. But, you are right that it is best to stick to a heart healthy diet.

  10. pandi merdeka January 14th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

    oh man. it’s my favorite, r there another way can i do to continue eat the chocolate. that’s my heaven :smile:

  11. StockTube January 16th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

    i didn’t know that but then most of the time i’ll put the whole bar of chocolate into my mouth - risk or no risk :)
    cheers …

  12. Doodee February 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 am

    Thanks for sharing

  13. The Rice Way February 27th, 2008 at 7:09 am

    Wow, I totally didn’t know that. Thanks so much for that entry! I’m feeling smarter already :)

  14. Tommy February 27th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

    thanx for the info. I recently started moving to dark chocolate , guess i need to just cutback instead of replacing.

  15. liza February 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Thanks for sharing this. I read somewhere that it’s good for the heart. My family loves dark chocolate so much, I guess we have to slow down on it. Happy Friday.

  16. Tee March 12th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    Oh no, that’s the worst news ever! Makes perfect sense, though.

    I tried the Lindt 99% dark and it was incredibly bitter. Gave me a headache eating it, but my heart probably appreciated it…

    http://www.joyfuldigesting.com/

  17. Howard Greenstein’s Website » Blog Archive » Not all Dark Chocolate good for you…drat! April 3rd, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    [...] All ‘dark’ chocolate not good for heart As flavinoids taste bitter, some companies remove the flavinoids from dark chocolate to make them taste better. All that remains is fat and sugar and there is no health benefit whatsoever. [...]


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