Why Dark Chocolate Is So Good For You. And What To Do About It.
By this time, everyone has heard how wonderful dark chocolate is for your heart, your head, your cholesterol, for cancer prevention, and even for your weight.
But most of those health benefits come from a single place: it’s NOT the sugar, the wafer, the nougat, or any coco-licious food product … thing … at all. The health benefits come from the particular species of anti-oxidants that come pre-packaged in the cocoa bean called catechins (pronounced Cat-E-Kins) and epi-catechins.
What are catechins?
Catechins are phytochemical compounds, clasified as flavanols. High concentrations can be found in red wine, broad beans, black grapes, apricots and strawberries. Epicatechin concentrations are high in apples, blackberries, broad beans, cherries, black grapes, pears, raspberries, and chocolate.
Statistics show that 14 out of ever 12 humans like chocolate so, if you are not from this planet and don’t like chocolate, there are other ways to get all those health benefits! Check out the chart below for a list of the foods that are so very healthy for you, due to their catechin/epicatechin content
| Food | Catechin (mg/100g) | Epicatechin (mg/100g) |
| Apples | 0.9 | 6.1 |
| Blackberries | 37.1 | 4.7 |
| Black Grapes | 10.1 | 8.7 |
| Brewed Black Tea | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Brewed Green Tea | 2.6 | 8.3 |
| Cherries | 1.3 | 7 |
| Cocoa | 0 | 26.2 |
| Dark Chocolate | 12 | 41.5 |
| Fava Beans | 8.2 | 7.8 |
| Milk Chocolate | 2.1 | 6.3 |
| Pears | 0.3 | 3.8 |
| Raspberries | 1.6 | 4.1 |
| Red Table Wine | 7 | 3.3 |
References: 1. Williamson G, Manach C. Bioavailability and bioefficacy of polyphenols in humans. II. Review of 93intervention studies. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:243S-255S.2. Nutrient Data Laboratory US Department of Agriculture. USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content ofSelected Foods. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 2007.
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About The Author
The big question is….what percentage of dark chocolate was used to get these results?
Correct! And another issue is whether the cocoa is dutch processed or not. The more alkali (what defines "Dutch processing") they add in highly processed versions of chocolate the more you lose the catechins — between 60 – 90% of them!!