Candy Dish Blog

Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about some new study linking chocolate consumption to heart health.  No seriously, I get these daily pubmed updates e-mailed to me. They’re great. You should try them.  Oh, what’s that?  Normal people don’t read the latest scientific abstracts for fun? Oh well, you don’t need to be a nerd like me to know what’s going on with chocolate and health, as it is science anyone can bite into.

Many studies in both humans and rodents have observed lower deaths due to heart disease in chocolate consumers compared to non-consumers of chocolate.  This is an exciting and interesting phenomenon for us chocolate lovers, but certainly inspires wonder as to why this association exists.  Tons of scientists are asking the same question, hence the growing body of research filling my inbox.

Results from most studies looking at blood pressure and chocolate consumption show that flavanols (the antioxidants in chocolate) reduce blood pressure and risk for hypertension.  Studies have also found that these antioxidants fight inflammation in the heart muscles, leading to overall better heart health.  Meanwhile, stearic acid, one of the fats in chocolate, is thought to have a positive benefit on blood cholesterol levels.  These examples reflect some of the most common conclusions. However, scientists are coming up with new ideas about how chocolate might be beneficial to the heart all the time.

So when your sweetie gives you a box of chocolate from their heart on Valentine’s Day, remember it just might help out yours.

Editor’s note: Yes, we know it’s not Tuesday. In the midst of the blizzard coming through the DC area, some things slipped by us. I will continue to blame the oompa loompas until someone can legitimately point a finger my way.

Woven heart and passion fruit chocolates by jamescronin.

Ever wonder what makes chocolate taste so good? The answer, apart from chocolate’s extraordinarily diverse array of flavor compounds, is the same answer to what makes just about anything taste good: the fat. Though fat alone is usually devoid of flavor, it acts to enhance just about anything with which it is paired.

The fat in chocolate is cocoa butter. Cocoa beans are composed of 53% cocoa butter, which is separated from ground cocoa beans (known as chocolate liquor due to its liquidy consistency) by pressing through a metal sieve under high pressure. The by-product of this process is especially celebrated in the coming winter months—cocoa! After pressing, cocoa butter is then reunited more chocolate liquor and sugar to make the fabulous substance we know as chocolate.

In addition to bolstering chocolate flavor, cocoa butter is also responsible for chocolate’s unique melting profile and delightful mouth feel. Chocolate melts at precisely 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit because of cocoa butter’s elegant composition. Most fats, such as dairy fat for example, are made up of dozens of different types of fatty acids, each with a specific melting point. Think of butter melting on the stove…the clear yellow part is the first to liquefy, followed by the turbid white part. Cocoa butter is composed simply of three fatty acids: oleic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid, all with similar melting points and for this reason chocolate exhibits a very narrow melting range.

Stearic acid, one of cocoa butter’s fatty acid trio, is most definitely saturated in terms of its hydrocarbon structure but has been shown to have a neutral (and in some studies, positive) effect on blood cholesterol levels. This was a hot topic of discussion at the USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines Committee meeting last week, a meeting held every five years to revise USDA’s nutritional recommendations. The experts reviewed data on stearic acid, concluding it to be cholesterol neutral and debating the merits of a more health-oriented nutritional labeling plan.

Some of you might be thinking, “Yeah yeah, we all love fat too but isn’t it one of those no-no foods, not to be celebrated and praised, but rather avoided and renounced?” Fat is pretty much the most calorie-dense substance nature could come up with, a characteristic less appreciated in today’s food-secure environment than previous times of human existence, and as such needs to be consumed in moderation.

Furthermore, overconsumption of some fats raises harmful cholesterol levels in the blood, eventually leading to negative effects on cardiovascular health. The distinction between cholesterol-raising and cholesterol-lowering or neutral fats is usually communicated by the degree of saturation, a characteristic of a fat’s chemical structure rather than healthful attributes. Saturated fat is warned to be cholesterol-raising and unsaturated fat is lauded as cholesterol-lowering or neutral. As with many scientific communications, this is an oversimplification of the truth to the extent that it might be misleading.

However, rest assured that stearic acid, part of the goodness of chocolate, breaks the mold for this rule of “saturated fat equals bad for you.” Don’t think that a chocolate bar is going to cure you of anything more than a snacktime hunger, but don’t be afraid of it either.

Chocolate by rachel is coconut&lime.