Here's to Your Health and Happiness: Toasting the Benefits and Pleasures of Chocolate
| May/June 1998
In our January 1997 issue, we told you about a wine chemist at the University of California at Davis who found chocolate was rich in potent antioxidants called phenolics--the same antioxidants found in red wine. These antioxidants may prevent LDL cholesterol from pitting and scarring the lining of blood vessels, protecting us from heart disease. Now, more benefits and explanations for the pleasures of chocolate are being reported. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University had volunteers eat a diet loaded with fat from chocolate and their cholesterol levels remained the same. Why? Nutritionists now know some forms of saturated fatty acids don't affect cholesterol. Peter Jaret, the author of "Three Cheers for Chocolate" in the Winter 1998 issue of Health for Life, explained: "One-third of the fat in chocolate is a cholesterol-friendly saturated fat called stearic acid, while another third is a healthy unsaturated fat called oleic acid. Remember, Jaret cautioned, "while pure chocolate gets most of its fat from cocoa butter, with its bounty of stearic acid, many sweets labeled chocolate contain very little." High-grade chocolate with no additives, like the chocolate at Romolos, contains as much as 70 percent cocoa butter by weight. Other chocolate bars may contain just 20 percent or less. The amount of antioxidants, or phenolics, found in chocolate also varies according to darkness of the chocolate. Romolo's dark, or burgundy, chocolate contains the highest amounts of the antioxidants, while our white chocolate contains none--but is made with plenty of cocoa butter. These are some of the physical benefits--what about the psychological pleasure of chocolate? Over the decades, psychiatrists, biochemists and university researchers have singled out substances in chocolate they thought contributed to our craving for it--all found in such small amounts, however, that they couldn't possible account for our desire for this rich, sweet treat. A simple reason for the pleasant sensation of chocolate is the fact that the melting point of coca butter is the same as body temperature--the reason for the extraordinarily wonderful feeling of chocolate melting in your mouth. It absorbs heat while it melts, producing a slight cooling sensation which adds to the sumptuous experience. "Beyond that," author Jaret said, "chocolate's a blend of flavors and aromas so complex that food chemists have never been able to duplicate it in the lab." We know all about chocolate, don't we? With every bite, we know true pleasure--some would say, true love. Now, if we could only volunteer for chocolate research projects... |
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