Chocolate

“Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.”  I found this wonderful, spot-on quote while hunting for a snappy way to begin this post about the health (and apparently literary) powers of chocolate, a food once maligned and now touted as an anti-aging miracle.  The author of this bold – and true! – statement is a guy by the name of Baron Justus von Liebig.  In addition to being a chocoholic – a term not in use during his lifetime (1803-1873) – he is considered to be the father of fertilizer industry (an honor, I guess).  He also kind of invented the beef boullion cube.  Which is to say:  Chocolate does not discriminate in its lovers.

I love chocolate.  Not with the same passion that I love seared scallops or — just so you don’t think I’m that pure — not with the same full-body rush I experience when cutting into a Silver Palette carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  But I do love the stuff.  And, like everyone else except, apparently, the father of the fertilizer industry, I used to feel guilty about it.  An indulgence.  Bad for you.  Then came the research about chocolate as a mood booster (as if science had to tell us this), and all of a sudden it was kind of okay to go to the Dove side.  But there was also this “chocolate is a drug” vibe that added a layer of guilt for those of us vulnerable to such things.

Recently, however, the burden of guilt has been lifted by the work of experimental scientists who are busy chronicling the many, varied and most excellent effects of chocolate (dark chocolate, that is  – 70% cacao) on the human body.   How excellent?  Let me count the ways:

Dark chocolate significantly lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol).

Dark chocolate reduces inflammation (that’s systemic inflammation, the kind that wrecks havoc on the cardiovascular system).

Dark chocolate is a powerful scavenger of free radicals.

Dark chocolate has beneficial effects on the lining of blood vessels and the lymphatic system.

Dark chocolate has beneficial effects on cognitive function.

Dark chocolate ‘s anti-oxidant effects may directly influence insulin resistance and, in turn, reduce the risk of diabetes.

Conducting the kind of research that makes you want to be a guinea pig  — in one study, healthy (and lucky) volunteers ate had to eat dark chocolate every single day for weeks – scientists here and in Europe have been amassing powerful evidence of the heart-healthy, anti-aging properties of dark chocolate.  It may not be, as the Baron said, a “perfect” food.  But it is a bonafide “health food.”  In fact, it might be considered a superfood.

But, beware.  As Yale researchers concluded in a study that touted the protective benefits of dark chocolate, “potential detrimental effects of overconsumption exist (i.e. weight gain).”  Potential?

“Caramels are only a fad. Chocolate is a permanent thing.”
― Milton Hershey