true love

I love chocolate! There I said it, I admit it freely. If there is one food on the planet that I never tire of it's chocolate. I don't really like candy, cookies or cakes, they are okay but chocolate, I truly enjoy. 

So how bad is chocolate really. I remember hearing as a teenager that chocolate gave you zits, which is either untrue or I am now immune to this side-effect because I eat chocolate as often as possible and don't have acne.

It often has a lot of calories for the size of the enjoyment. The bag of Hershey chocolate chips I have in the freezer says that a smidgen 1 Tbsp of chips has 70 calories. It doesn't sound like much until you think about how many chocolate chips are in a tablespoon. I checked, there are about 20. Not a lot when you get a nagging craving for chocolate.

The truth is that chocolate is good for you. Cocoa contains flavonoids which have been shown to prevent heart disease and cancer. However, many of the chocolate products

like candy bars or hot chocolate have been adulterated with alkali (Dutch chocolate) or toms of fats and sugars to boost the flavor and richness. To really get the antioxidant benefits of chocolate you need to choose dark chocolate with a higher cocoa level. And forget about Milk or white chocolate, these don't have the same effect on the body and they are much higher in fat and calories.

Here are a few links to articles that discuss the benefits of dark chocolate:

Is Chocolate Good For You?

Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate

Chocolate Can Do Good Things for Your Heart, Skin and Brains

Remember, even though chocolate has some pretty great health benefit, everything in moderation, especially during the upcoming holidays which always seem to involve a lot of chocolate.

enjoy!

martha