Go ahead. Take a bite of chocolate on Valentine’s Day. If you don’t overindulge, a little chocolate may benefit body and soul. In this “Health Fusion” column, Viv Williams talks to a dietitian about the sweet treats....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Take a bite out of Valentine’s Day chocolate
ROCHESTER — Valentine’s Day has always been a holiday of love, hope and mystique for me. When I was little, my wonderful father would bring home four gloriously wrapped heart-shaped boxes full of irresistible chocolates: Three red ones for each of his daughters and a huge pink one for his wife.
To me, those boxes represented his abundant love for his family and hope that my future would continue to be full of love. But mostly, those packages triggered my imagination and transported me to exotic places where fancy people sat outside in magnificent gardens and ate chocolates out of the same kind of boxes.
I’ll admit it. I’m a chocoholic. And Valentine’s Day back then was a win-win for me. Actually, it was a win-win-win-win, because neither my sisters nor my mom liked chocolate as much as I did, and they’d give the littlest sister their cast-off pieces, which I consumed with abandon.
Inevitably, my Valentine’s splurge resulted in a stomach ache. And a truffle hangover the next day. As for preferences, I’ve always liked milk chocolate better than dark, which is not cool these days, I know. Dark chocolate seems to be trendier and healthier. So let’s take a bite out of what an expert says about the nutritional value of chocolate — both milk and dark.
“Chocolate should be taken in moderation, no matter what,” says Katie Johnson, a board certified health and wellness coach and registered dietitian with Level2 (a UnitedHealthCare partner). “But dark chocolate has a lot of health benefits.”
Johnson says dark chocolate is usually a healthier option than milk or white chocolate because of the amount of cacao in it.
“If you look for dark chocolate with 70% of cacao or cocoa or more, you’ll get benefits from antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties,” says Johnson. “I’m not going to say that milk chocolate is bad for you, but it will have more sugar, more fat and a higher calorie content. Generally, the lighter the chocolate, the less nutrition it has.”
The beneficial properties Johnson mentions are flavonols, which are also found in foods such as fruits, vegetables and cheese.
“Flavonols help scavenge free radicals in your body,” says Johnson. “They produce a response that can help hamper inflammation, they’re protective for heart disease and they’re protective against a lot of types of cancers.”
Johnson calls dark chocolate a super food that, when taken in small doses, can help boost your health. She recommends people think of dark chocolate as a treat that’s part of a healthy diet and to keep servings to one ounce of dark chocolate per day. That’s equivalent to approximately 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder or a matchbook size piece of chocolate.
“Not all dark chocolate is created equally,” says Johnson. “So when you read the label, the fewer ingredients the better. Again, look for 70% cacao or cocoa or more and make sure it’s one of the first ingredients. Avoid products that have sugar or words you can’t pronounce as one of the first ingredients.”
So if you want to go the dark chocolate route for Valentine’s Day, when you’re out buying one of those beautiful boxes full of chocolate delicacies for your loved ones, check the labels. Or, Johnson says, you could buy the chocolates and put them in fancy packaging yourself.
“But don’t deprive yourself of what you like,” Johnson says. “If you like milk chocolate, have a bite, but don’t over do it.”
I admit, I will likely indulge in many types of chocolate on Valentine’s Day as I open another much loved, heart-shaped box of goodies.
Thanks for reading; Like share and comment your opinions in the comments section below.
