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AIN’T THAT SWEET!
New research shows the hidden benefits of eating dark chocolate
By Sora Song

Go ahead, indulge yourself a little. Medical science has just cooked up two sweet reasons to eat chocolate – as long as it’s dark chocolate. Two small studies published last week suggest that dark chocolate may offer such benefits as lower blood pressure and higher levels of disease-and-age-defying chemicals called antioxidants. As if you needed an excuse.
Researchers have long known that cocoa beans contain a class of chemicals called flavonoids, which are also found in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. Previous studies suggest that flavonoids raise levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and act as potent antioxidants, protecting cells from free-radical damage, which can contribute to aging, heart disease and certain cancers.
In a study published in Nature, researchers asked 12 volunteers to eat dark chocolate only, dark chocolate with a glass of milk, or milk chocolate. An hour later, the dark-chocolate-only group showed an 18% increase in blood levels of antioxidants called epicatechins. Those in the latter two groups had no such change. “We suspect it’s the proteins in the milk that the epicatechins are binding to, so they’re not absorbed,” says study co-author Alan Crozier of the University of Glasgow. “There is evidence that with tea, milk does something similar.” [...]

( TIME Magazine, September 8, 2003, p. 99)