Give up chocolate?

Why You Should Have A Little Dark Chocolate Every Day

Do you ever feel like health advice has bipolar disorder or at the very least, mood swings? One day margarine is going to save your heart and then we find out that the hydrogenated oils in margarine have been harming your heart for years.

Ah, right. Sorry about the heart disease.

Here’s another from our official dietary advice. “You have got to drink at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water every day.” I’ve heard that called hateful drinking because sucking back eight swimming pools of water just makes you grumpy. And it turns out there's no scientific evidence that everyone needs to heed this advice.

As the bearer of good news though, let me tell you that the Olympic back-flipping also applies to the evil saturated fats in chocolate. We were told that these Voldemort villains were heart stoppers. But, now we part our hair on the side and not in the middle, and all saturated fats aren’t all bad for you all the time.

Like most bad guys, they’re just misunderstood. And chocolate’s supposedly-offending sat fats turn out to be heart healthy. They come from a bean, which grows right on a tree, and that should have been clue number 1, but let’s just do the math here.

The fats in chocolate come from cocoa butter:

·         1/3 = steric acid (your liver converts it into oleic acid, which is a heart-healthy, monounsaturated fat.

·         1/3 = the oleic acid itself.

·         1/3 = palmitic acid is a sat fat, but is being reconsidered now.

Biochemistry lesson over. Bottom line? High-cocoa chocolate raises your good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers your bad cholesterol (LDL). People are told to take pills to get that done. Bet they don’t taste as good as a thumb-sized piece of 85% makes-you-moan-out-loud wonderfulness. And they don’t go with rich red wine, either.

It would be more convincing if you could just show something simple like, more consistent chocolate = less heart disease. The problem is that you’d need thousands of people in that study to get the statistical strength to make it statistically significant.

Oh look. Thousands of people. In a study on chocolate. What do you know?

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital studied the massive National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Family Health Study, with a whopping 4,970 people from 25 to 93 years old. They found that those who ate more chocolate did in fact have fewer incidences of heart disease. Maybe that’s because of theory that HDL-up + LDL-down = heart healthy, maybe it’s because cocoa can lower chronic inflammation that can lead to atherosclerosis. Those are great academic questions for academics. But for most of us, it’s just really good news.

But wait, there’s more.

The heart disease benefit in this study was dose dependent. In other words, the more consistently they ate the chocolate, the higher the protection: one to three times a week was good; one to four times a week was better; but the greatest reduction in actual incidents of heart disease happened with those who had chocolate five or more times per week. In other words, chocolate consumption and heart disease are inversely related: when one goes up, the other goes down. By the way, those who ate an equivalent non-chocolate candy had a 49% greater prevalence of heart disease.

The good news is that this particular nutrition science change of heart is delicious. And, given all its cardio-goodness, chocolate should be prescribed for daily use. Can you imagine some doctor telling you to take your daily dose of vitamin Ch?

Doctors prescribing daily chocolate? Don’t hold your breath. But until that day happens and you get an illegible script for 70%-plus-cocoa chocolate, do your heart a favor and have a little every day in control. Get a Pez dispenser if you have to.

by Dr. Will Clower

See also:
Top health benefits of dark chocolate
Dark chocolate is healthy chocolate

Chocolate is a salad?

HA HA!

Top Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Source:  http://www.myhealthtips.in/


See also:
Why you should have a little dark chocolate every day
Dark chocolate is healthy chocolate

A Chocolate Favorite: Hawaiian Host Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts

Since my first trip to Hawaii, back in 1981, I have always had a favorite chocolate treat from the islands: Chocolate covered Macadamia Nuts by Hawaiian Host.

I have tried this same treat as made by other companies as well, but none compare to the rich flavor and perfect blend of delicious, creamy chocolate and tasty, quality nuts as those made by Hawaiian Host.  Although you can find these in specialty stores, or order them online, the most common way for me to enjoy them is when I make a trip to Hawaii, or have a relative from Hawaii come here to visit.

I've got an upcoming Hawaiian trip, and you can bet that I will stock up on plenty of these delectable chocolates.  I can't wait!

Quotes from the Movie "Chocolat"

Père Henri: [hearing confession] What else?
Guillaume Blerot: Impure thoughts. The woman who runs the chocolaterie...
Père Henri: Vianne Rocher?
Guillaume Blerot: She suggested I buy chocolate sea shells for the widow Audel. And, well... I guess that got me to thinking, about the widow Audel.
Père Henri: At her age? At *your* age?
Guillaume Blerot: Yes, and yes.

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Luc Clairmont: [at confession] Each time I tell myself it's the last time, but then I get a whiff of her hot chocolate, or...
Madame Audel: ...Seashells. Chocolate seashells, so small, so plain, so *innocent*. I thought, oh, just one little taste, it can't do any harm. But it turned out they were filled with rich, sinful...
Yvette Marceau: ...And it *melts*, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue, and tortures you with pleasure.

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Armande Voizin: Your cinnamon looks rancid.
Vianne Rocher: Well, it's not cinnamon, it's a special kind of chili pepper.
Armande Voizin: Chili pepper in hot chocolate? Psh.
Vianne Rocher: Mm-hm. It'll give you a lift.

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Vianne Rocher: And these are for your husband. Unrefined cacao nips from Guatemala, to awaken the passions.
Yvette Marceau: Psshh. You've obviously never met my husband.
Vianne Rocher: Well, you've obviously never tried these.

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Vianne Rocher: I have two announcements. Number one, if you enjoyed what you ate here, you're going to love my chocolate festival on Sunday.
Armande Voizin: Advertise on your own time. Whats for dessert?
Vianne Rocher: That brings me to number two. It is my duty to announce, that there is no dessert here tonight. [guests sound disappointed]
Vianne Rocher: Because its on Rouxs boat. [uncomfortable silence]
Armande Voizin: Any complaints, see me.

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Roux: I thought you'd never guess. My favourite - hot chocolate.

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From the book Chocolat by Joanne Harris:

“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”

“Why can no one here think of anything but chocolates?”

“I sell dreams, small comforts, sweet harmless temptations to bring down a multitude of saints crashing among the hazels and nougatines”

Great Chocolate Excerpts from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Excerpts from the book by Roald Dahl:

“He turned and reached behind him for the chocolate bar, then he turned back again and handed it to Charlie. Charlie grabbed it and quickly tore off the wrapper and took an enormous bite. Then he took another…and another…and oh, the joy of being able to cram large pieces of something sweet and solid into one's mouth! The sheer blissful joy of being able to fill one's mouth with rich solid food!

'You look like you wanted that one, sonny,' the shopkeeper said pleasantly.

Charlie nodded, his mouth bulging with chocolate.”

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"And now the whole country, indeed, the whole world, seemed suddenly to be caught up in a mad chocolate-buying spree, everybody searching frantically for those precious remaining tickets. Fully grown women were seen going into sweet shops and buying ten Wonka bars at a time, then tearing off the wrappers on the spot and peering eagerly underneath for a glint of golden paper. Children were taking hammers and smashing their piggy banks and running out to the shops with handfuls of money. In one city, a famous gangster robbed a bank of a thousand pounds and spent the whole lot on Wonka bars that same afternoon. And when the police entered his house to arrest him, they found him sitting on the floor amidts mountains of chocolate, ripping off the wrappers with the blade of a long dagger..."

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"Mother! Look! I've got it! Look, Mother, look! The last Golden Ticket! It's mine! I found some money in the street and I bought two bars of chocolate and the second one had the Golden Ticket and there were crowds of people all around me wanting to see it and the shopkeeper rescued me and I ran all the way home and here I am! IT'S THE FIFTH GOLDEN TICKET, MOTHER, AND I'VE FOUND IT!"

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“An important room, this!” cried Mr. Wonka, taking a bunch of keys from his pocket and slipping one into the keyhole of the door. “This is the nerve center of the whole factory, the heart of the whole business! And so beautiful! I insist upon my rooms being beautiful! I can’t abide ugliness in factories! In we go, then! But do be careful, my dear children! Don’t lose your heads! Don’t get overexcited! Keep very calm!”

Mr. Wonka opened the door. Five children and nine grownups pushed their ways in – and oh, what an amazing sight it was that now met their eyes!

They were looking down upon a lovely valley. There were green meadows on either side of the valley, and along the bottom of it there flowed a great brown river.

What is more, there was a tremendous waterfall halfway along the river – a steep cliff over which the water curled and rolled in a solid sheet, and then went crashing down into a boiling churning whirlpool of froth and spray.

Below the waterfall (and this was the most astonishing sight of all), a whole mass of enormous glass pipes were dangling down into the river from somewhere high up in the ceiling! They really were enormous, those pipes. There must have been a dozen of them at least, and they were sucking up the brownish muddy water from the river and carrying it away to goodness knows where. And because they were made of glass, you could see the liquid flowing and bubbling along inside them, and above the noise of the waterfall, you could hear the never-ending suck-suck-sucking sound of the pipes as they did their work.

Graceful trees and bushes were growing along the riverbanks – weeping willows and alders and tall clumps of rhododendrons with their pink and red and mauve blossoms. In the meadows, there were thousands of buttercups.

“There!” cried Mr. Wonka, dancing up and down and pointing his gold-tipped cane at the great brown river. “It’s all chocolate! Every drop of that river is hot melted chocolate of the finest quality. The very finest quality. There’s enough chocolate in there to fill every bathtub in the entire country! And all the swimming pools as well! Isn’t it terrific? And just look at my pipes! They suck up the chocolate and carry it away to all the other rooms in the factory where it is needed! Thousands of gallons an hour, my dear children! Thousands and thousands of gallons!

The children and their parents were too flabbergasted to speak. They were staggered. They were dumfounded. They were bewildered and dazzled. They were completely bowled over by the hugeness of the whole thing. They simply stood and stared.

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"The waterfall is most important! It mixes the chocolate! It churn it up! It pounds it and beats it! It makes it light and frothy! No other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall! But it's the only was to do it properly! The only way!"