No, sorry I can not give up on dark chocolate and did you know small a quantity of dark chocolate is good for your health.
Why is dark chocolate is good for your health?
Dark chocolate is naturally rich in antioxidants called flavonoids (or specifically known as, flavanols) it’s the same antioxidants found in fruit, vegetables, tea and red wine. These antioxidants are thought to lower blood pressure and help protect against heart disease and among other things. Recent studies conducted both in the U.S. and Europe seem to support chocolate’s beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system.
Addition information
Researchers reported at the 2004 American Society of Hypertension Annual Scientific Meeting in New York, that consuming dark chocolate and cocoa improves the function of blood vessels.
In one new study, consumption of cocoa in healthy volunteers, aged 18 to 77, resulted in significantly improved vascular responsiveness. (The measure the researchers used looked at the "stiffness" of blood vessels. In patients whose blood vessels are "stiff," hypertension is common.) The beneficial effect was most pronounced in patients over 50 years of age.
In a second study, after volunteers ate 100 grams of dark chocolate (the sacrifices one performs for science!) vascular responsiveness was again significantly improved.
And in a July, 2005 report in Hypertension, Italian investigators showed that feeding 100 grams of dark chocolate daily to hypertensive patients improved their systolic and diastolic blood pressures - and lowered their LDL cholesterol levels. (Control patients fed white chocolate had no beneficial effects.)
Investigators postulate that it is the flavonoids in chocolate that causes vascular improvement. Dark chocolate contains more flavonoids than lighter chocolate - and adding milk to chocolate (i.e., milk chocolate) inhibits the absorption of flavonoids. So any benefit gained by eating chocolate may be limited to dark chocolate (and cocoa)
Why you shouldn't eat a lot of chocolate based on these findings.
The findings reported this week are interesting, but don't begin eating chocolate like it's candy.
First, flavonoid content varies markedly in chocolate products, so you might not be getting the healthy stuff with that candy bar. (The flavonoid content of the chocolate used in these studies was carefully quantified, but such quantification has not been done for commercial chocolate products. It is likely that chocolate manufacturers will begin reporting on flavonoid content in the future, however.)
And second, along with the flavonoids, chocolate products also deliver lots and lots of calories. 100 grams of dark chocolate, for instance, yields approximately 500 calories, and eating this much chocolate daily without adjusting for the increase in calories will produce a weight gain of about 1 pound per week. So any benefit you might gain by eating chocolate could be completely negated by making yourself obese.
Furthermore - and importantly for those who adhere religiously to one or another mutually-exclusive dietary philosophies - these extra calories are packaged both as fat and as carbohydrates. This means that adding chocolate to your diet will violate both low fat and low carb dietary dogma.
2007-03-13 01:34:22
·
answer #1
·
answered by Yūsuke 5
·
0⤊
0⤋
The only way I'm giving up MY chocolate is when they take it from my cold dead hands !!! ( I think Charlton Heston said that (?) )
2007-03-13 07:32:22
·
answer #2
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
I could, chocolate isn't important to me
2007-03-13 07:27:40
·
answer #3
·
answered by ? 2
·
0⤊
1⤋
HELL NO..........there would be nothing in the world that could get me to give up my chocolate......mmmmm it taste sooooo good.....
2007-03-13 07:56:19
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
I could do it but life wouldn't be worth living anymore.
2007-03-13 07:35:58
·
answer #5
·
answered by sideways 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
Yes, I could give up anything if forced!!!
2007-03-13 07:29:46
·
answer #6
·
answered by Dovey 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
Quite easily. I only ever eat it about once a month.
2007-03-13 07:27:46
·
answer #7
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
I've tried, yet it still comes back to me.. now THAT'S true love
"If you love something let it free, if it comes back to you it's yours.. if it doesn't it never was.." Need I say more?
2007-03-13 07:30:04
·
answer #8
·
answered by ☆Karma☆ 6
·
1⤊
0⤋
I've never eaten it so yeah guess I could!
2007-03-13 07:29:30
·
answer #9
·
answered by jovvijo 6
·
0⤊
0⤋
Yes .. sweeties are my downfall . Don't think i could give those up !:)
2007-03-13 07:28:50
·
answer #10
·
answered by MynameisShirl 5
·
0⤊
0⤋