by Jeff Vidrine

Created on: July 08, 2007

This is a subject fraught with controversy, inaccurate information and scientific double-talk. I love chocolate! Who doesn't love the rich, bittersweet delight of a fine chunk of dark chocolate? Or the anticipation as one inhales the warm aroma of baking chocolate brownies? This love affair with chocolate extends into, well, love affairs, as some chocolate aficionados would proclaim the aphrodisiac qualities of our subject. However, there is a dark side to this chocolate conundrum, and I am not speaking in terms of color.

Chocolate is eaten in the United States in vast quantities. A look at www.nutritiondata.com which lists the nutrition facts required on all food products in the US and a graphical analysis of the product shows that six ounces, less than a small bag of M&M candies, contain 805 calories. The fifty grams of fat present in this generic bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips represent 78% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA)of fat. On top of this, a whopping thirty of the fifty grams of fat are saturated fats(178% of the RDA), the type associated with numerous medical problems: high cholesterol, obesity, and heart disease just to name a few. NutritionData's analysis also finds chocolate to have a high glygemic index which measures how hard the body's insulin-producing system has to work, a major concern for diabetics and those who are predisposed to diabetes. The rating goes even further to give this 6 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate an extremely poor inflammatory rating which means that this semi-sweet delight may contribute to inflammatory processes already present, such as arthritis.

Now one could point out in the scientific literature that positive health benefits may be derived from chocolate, specifically dark chocolate. Just this past week Newsweek through msnbc.com reports that the Journal of the American Medical Association will publish a study demonstrating the reduction of blood pressure in patients who ate the equivalent of one, that's right one, Hershey's Kiss per day. Back in February 2007, Newsweek reported the benefit of flavanols, which are anti-oxidant chemicals found in chocolate that come from the cocoa bean itself. The article states that flavanols work to improve blood flow and prevent blood clotting, just the thing cardiac and stroke prevention requires.

The caveat in all of the science extolling the health benefits of chocolate is that the benefit is derived from the cocoa bean that is made into chocolate. A cocoa bean or

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