Chocolates good for our hearts

Thursday, 15 February 2007

Good news ladies! Chocolates are good for us. Well, at least the dark ones.

According to the American Dietic Association, one of the primary benefits of chocolate is the antioxidants, particularly the flavonoids that are responsible for preventing cholesterol from sticking to our artery walls, a cause of heart attack and stroke. In fact, these flavonoids in chocolates are the same compounds that are found in red wine and tea.

Apparently because flavonoids come from extracts of the cocoa bean, therefore the darker the chocolate, the better it is for our body .

In addition, some types of chocolate are now enriched with plant sterols, which have been shown to reduce a person’s risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol level. Certain chemicals can also be found in chocolate that decrease the risk of sugar damage to teeth.

However, please don’t go munching on bars of chocolates now. As chocolate is no health food and aren’t replacements for fruits or vegetables, the advice is to consume it in moderation as a snack.