Chocolate: How Healthy is it - Really?

High cocoa content dark chocolate contains greater levels of antioxidants than ordinary chocolate, which we are told is good for us. You've probably heard about antioxidants and how they help you to stay healthy, particularly helping to avoid heart disease.

But do you know why?

And did you know the most powerful, naturally occurring antioxidants are found in cocoa beans? Even more than you can get from red wine, green tea or blueberries?

You see, the cocoa bean is healthy because it contains procyanid flavonoids (that's a mouthful isn't it?) These are polyphenols which have an antioxidant effect and are amongst the most powerful we can get to help us in our fight to keep healthy.

That's why health nutritionists and scientists tell us to eat high-cocoa content dark chocolate - to get as many of these healthy polyphenols as possible.

They protect against the attack of free radicals in your body. Free radicals are highly unstable molecules. They react with other cells to try to make themselves stable. When they do that with our healthy cells they can cause damage.

In normal conditions, a healthy body is able to neutralise attacks from free radicals. But scientific research has shown when the free radical levels are too high, they can cause disease, early ageing, mental problems - like dementia or even cancer.

(Read more about how free radicals damage our health system on wikipedia -

scroll down to the section headed Free Radicals in Biology)

This short video clip explains how cocoa polyphenols work to eliminate damaging free radicals...

We naturally create free radicals when we are under stress, exposed to air pollution, stay out too long in the sun, have an unbalanced diet or smoke. So a healthy living style does help to keep free radicals to a minimum. And the food we eat goes a long way towards protecting us too.

One scientific method used to compare the antioxidant capacity of different foods is the ORAC method (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). It measures the neutralising effect different foods have on potentially harmful free radicals.

We need 4000 ORACS of antioxidants per day to help us fight the battle against the free radicals.

Dark chocolate - already mentioned; milk chocolate (yes, even milk chocolate delivers some antioxidants); cocoa; liquid chocolate (gives you an excuse to indulge in a chocolate fountain, maybe?) blueberries; red wine; prunes; almonds; raisins; broccoli and other fresh fruit and vegetables.

Interestingly, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and other sources, indicates that cocoa tops the list for ORAC levels per gram. The chart below shows how it compares to other foods:

The chocolate we buy from the shops is processed from cocoa beans. (but you already knew that, didn't you?) And as it goes through the harvesting, fermenting, roasting and chocolate production process it loses a huge amount of the natural cocoa polyphenols.

That's why we are advised to eat the higher cocoa content chocolate - which is usually dark chocolate - to compensate for the lost polyphenols. Trouble is you still need to eat quite a large quantity to have a beneficial effect.

But one of the world's largest chocolate production companies have come up trumps and created a process that doesn't strip out so much of the healthy cocoa elements.

Take a look at their comparison chart:

Last year my niece, Kelly, and I took part in a trial group to see what affect the chocolate had and how it tasted. We each had 2 small pieces of the dark chocolate each day. And even though Kelly doesn't normally eat dark chocolate she was surprised at how nice it tasted.

Kelly was attending a slimming club because she wanted to lose weight, so she wasn't sure about taking part to begin with. She was delighted to find that she could indulge in the daily portion of dark chocolate without ruining her diet.

For me, the concern was having chocolate at all, because I am a type 2 diabetic.

But I did a bit of research of my own and found out that clinical studies showed it was likely that antioxidants boost insulin sensitivity which can help diabetics control blood sugar levels.

(Have you noticed scientists often say 'may' or 'indications are' etc? They just don't want to make any claims until they're certain I s'pose).

Diabetics may be able to enjoy antioxidant-rich chocolate. Antioxidant research into chocolate holds hope for diabetics

Anyway we - and other people - took part in the trial. And I have to say we were pleasantly surprised. It didn't upset my blood sugars and I felt more alert, as if I'd got higher energy levels. And the chocolate didn't stop Kelly reaching her weight-loss goal. And quite a few other people reported positive results.

But what surprised me most was the folks who said this new chocolate reduced their cravings for sweets! Go figure!

The company holding the trial was a Surrey (UK) based chocolate manufacturer, called Delvaux Chocolates. They used the new antioxidant rich ingredients to create their Delvaux ACTICOA™ chocolates.

You can get milk or dark - and the really good news is - just two small pieces of the dark chocolate satisfies your RDA of antioxidants. And when I say 'pieces' I'm talking about a slim, 3.5cm x 2cm rectangle.

Not everyone likes the bitter taste of high cocoa content dark chocolate. I don't! But I did like the velvety, smooth taste of this Belgian dark chocolate.

Still not keen? No problem - they do a creamy-rich milk Belgian chocolate as well. Unfortunately you would need to force yourself to eat five pieces of this delicious chocolate; I know, life is hard sometimes isn't it ;¬D?

You can only get ACTICOA™ chocolates exclusively in the UK - use Google to search for a supplier. (Unfortunately Delvaux have stopped manufacturing the chocolate).