Why Eating Dark Chocolate as Part of a Healthy Heart Diet is Good For You.

A recent study isn't shy about suggesting regular consumption of small amounts of dark chocolate as part of a healthy heart diet could be good for your circulatory system.

Note the words small and dark. And forget about nugat and rich creamy centers. Instead we're talking pure chocolate... as close to its natural, rich, intense taste as possible.

Nutritionists have long known that since chocolate is derived from plants it potentially has many of the same health benefits as dark vegetables do - In fact it has almost 8 times the antioxidants of strawberries.

The reason for this high level of anti-oxidants is because they are packed with "Flavonoids" which are a natural part and parcel of cocoa (the main ingredient of dark chocolate). Once these little powerhouses get into your body, they work to gobble up dangerous free radicals that can cause the inflammation that brings on cardiovascular disease and cancer.

A large, well controlled Italian study, to be published in the Journal of Nutrition, has shown that dark chocolate can significantly reduce the inflammation that leads to heart disease.

The data came from the Moli-sani Project, one of the biggest epidemiological studies in Europe and involved the random selection of people 35 and older, in good health with no risk factors for heart disease.

The researchers looked at the levels of a protein (C reactive protein) in the bloodwork of the subjects while also noting their chocolate intake and adjusting for factors that normally are known to impact heart disease such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Out of 11,000 possible participants, researchers identified 4,849 subjects in good health and free of risk factors for heart disease. Among them, 1,317 did not eat any chocolate, while 824 had the treat regularly, but only the dark variety.

The work, a collaborative effort between Research Laboratories of the Catholic University in Campobasso and the National Cancer Institute of Milan, found that those who ate moderate amounts of dark chocolate had significantly lower levels of the C-reactive protein in their blood, indicating their inflammatory state was considerably reduced.

And though the 17% reduction seems small, in terms of cardiac disease it's still enough to cut the risk of cardiac disease for one third of women and one quarter of men. That's a pretty significant reduction.

So just how much dark, delicious chocolate do you need to eat to get the effect?

Remember the emphasis on dark chocolate... in fact, the darker the better. You'll want to look for chocolate with 70%, or more, cocoa solids and little or no added sugar.

The product should also be made with cocoa butter instead of palm or coconut oils, and avoid "hydrogenated" or "partly hydrogenated" oils as much as possible.

Of course, a moderate intake is also key... as you might expect.

Start by looking at the total weight of the bar you're considering. The ideal amount, according to the Italian research, is 6.7 grams (.23 ounces) a day. You might try to break a typical bar into 6 pieces and eating one each day... or enjoy a larger piece every couple of days. By the end of the week, you'll want to have taken in no more than 47 grams (about 1.7 ounces) of dark chocolate. Not even a full candy bar. Eating more doesn't add to the anti-inflammatory effect.

And milk chocolate (white chocolate too) doesn't, sadly, have the same effect on inflammation. It seems that the milk dilutes the antioxidant effect of the substances in the dark chocolate. The same holds true for a glass of milk you might have with your indulgent treat... be sure to choose a different drink so as not to defeat the healthy heart diet benefits to your body of the dark chocolate.