Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Chocolate: No More Guilt

I knew it! God invented chocolate for a good reason!

My favorite food no longer makes me feel guilty. According to a recent study, dark chocolate is full of healthy antioxidants that will help my blood to flow freely. I must eat some every day. I can handle this new assignment; I am sure of it. This BBC article says its flavanols even will help me not have high blood pressure or diabetes.

And...by the way....Ghirardelli makes the world's best chocolate.

Here is part of a Web MD report on the study by a group of European doctors; an article about it appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.

"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."

Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble.

Hooray!

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