Attention dark chocolate fans: Eating a little bit of dark chocolate every day is good for your heart, according to new research.
Members of the study ate one one square of the German chocolate bar Ritter Sport (yum!) every day. By the end of the study, they had lower blood pressure than those who ate white chocolate.
The drop in blood pressure was significant enough to potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Mmmm, chocolate!
Hint of Chocolate Holds a Reward [NYT]
So eating an entire Ritter bar every day can only be better—right?
Could this research could be just a PR move to sell more chocolate. I know a little dark chocolate is good for you. Some will just take advantage of this research and start gobbling down a few bars a day, which in essence defeats the whole purpose.
One bar should last a week.
Yes, note that it is TWO PIECES a day. Not two pieces a minute or 3 bars a day.
But did they have lower blood pressure than people not eat ANY chocolate? They may have just proved that dark chocolate is better for you than white chocolate (which is almost a no-brainer).
And OF COURSE this is funded by people wanting to sell more chocolate.
@alpha: White chocolate isn’t chocolate. It contains cocoa butter, but not the solids. I believe that the studies have been showing that it is the cocoa solids that have the benefit.
You know, eating beans everyday is also for your heart. I believe it was first discovered by Dr. Fartsalot when he was just a child. He even made a nursery rhyme:
Beans Beans, good for your heart
the more you eat the more you fart
the more you fart the better you feel
so eat your beans with every meal
[www.tian.cc]
Well, being lactose-intolerant for 7 years, has forced me to eat dark chocolate exclusively. (Although I still have to watch out because some manufacturers sneak in whey – which isn’t good for you, especially if you can’t eat dairy.) It’s excellent but you don’t need to eat much, maybe 1-ounce. The whole bar can last 5-7 days.
@teh:
That was precisely my point. White chocolate is fat and sugar and that’s about it. I guess if they were just trying to narrow it down to whether it was the solids or not, then good show…but one would suspect that fat and sugar (white chocolate) would probably NOT be good for your health. The way the article is written, it does NOT seem to say that dark chocolate reduced blood pressure, only that at the end of the study eaters of dark chocolate had lower blood pressure than those eating white chocolate.
Perhaps the white-chocolate-eaters saw an increase in blood pressure? I just don’t like the way everything is phrased, and a third group of “no chocolate eaters” would’ve been nice…But that might also steal the thunder from the dark chocolate industry….
However, Noka chocolate can lead to sharp pains in the common sense sector of your brain and lightness of the wallet.
@alpha: Exactly. From the way the article was written, it sounds like there was no control group. This would seem to be another poorly-designed study reported by the press without thought or critical analysis.
I love Green & Blacks 70% bar. I always put a few squares of it my daughter’s lunch box.
This is dumb.
White chocolate isn’t chocolate. It doesn’t have any real cocoa in it.
Pretty soon no chocolate is going to be chocolate:
The FDA is down with Fake Chocolate
The consumerist just really dropped the ball on the chocolate front. I sent in an article months ago about the FDA’s dastardly plans to change chocolate so none of it’s “real” chocolate anymore. But it was never posted, and now the period to contact your representative and the FDA is over.
The change to allowing chocolate manufacturers to eliminate cocoa butter is pissing off a lot of chocolate lovers, and is a real consumer issue, and it didn’t even get posted here. But this study did? Hello, it’s not going to be relevant if chocolate isn’t chocolate anymore, is it?
@kimsama:
True, and the average person thinks Hershey’s is chocolate (or if they go a BIT farther they may spring for Dove, which is only slightly less offesnsive). It was on this basis that many British colleagues of mine lambasted “American” chocolate. I tried to explain about Dagoba, etc. but they would have none of it.
@jeff303: Hear, hear! And what’s worse is that the cheap stuff won’t even be cheap, crappy chocolate anymore — it’ll just be cheap, crappy chocolate-flavored partially-hydrogenated oil food product.
At least you can still pay more to get the good stuff that’s hopefully still going to be pure. And lol about your Brit friends ^_^.
@jeff303:
Dove dark chocolate is actually quite good, but the best value IMO, is Trader Joe’s own brand of dark chocolate. Much less pricey than high end stuff like Godiva and just as good, if not better.
And speaking of Godiva, they just came out with a chocolate/coffee beverage, which — purely in the interest of scientific research — I need to try soon.
I’m a Sharffen Berger fan myself…mmmm.
@Dustbunny: Oh yeah, I get a dark chocolate pound plus for hot chocolate-making. That’s some good hot chocolate.
Two comments:
In Europe you can not sell that white stuff as ‘chocolate’.
It has been known for years that chocolate affects the Serotonin levels in your brain and it’s been known for years that all other things being equal happy people live longer, ergo……
This reminds me of the chocolate “war” between England and France a few years ago. The Brits wanted a similar law in the EU allowing manufacturers to eliminate cocoa butter. The French protested (mais oui!) I saw an interview on tv with an English chocolate mfr. who was livid that the French would dare to tell England how to make its chocolate. Maybe it’s just me, but whenever the French and the Brits get into it, it’s an endless source of amusement to moi.
@kimsama:
Try TJ’s organic dark chocolate. It has a complex flavor with a hint of cinnamon. If it wasn’t so damn hot right now, I’d go get some.
Not like I needed another justification for indulging in good chocolate!
Anyway, with very high-quality dark chocolate (whatever brand you prefer), a square or two is quite satisfactory. I’d feel ill with a whole bar. With cheaper or milk chocolate, the satisfaction isn’t nearly the same, so I scarf more…