While Valentine’s Day includes the giving of beautiful heart shaped boxes as well as other wonderful delights. If you have received a box full of chocolates, I hope it was the best kind.  It seems too good to be true, but remember that not all chocolate is bad for us. Eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate, has known health benefits. It has been linked with a decrease in blood pressure and improvements in the ability of the body to respond to the hormone insulin.

Dark chocolate contains high levels of flavonols that exert antioxidant properties, and emerging evidence suggests a potential benefit of a variety of flavonol-rich foods and beverages on cardiovascular events. In a double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with congestive heart failure. Researchers Flammer and colleagues compared the effect of commercially available flavonol-rich chocolate with cocoa-liquor-free control chocolate on endothelial and platelet function. They demonstrated that flavonol-rich chocolate acutely improves vascular function and inhibits platelet function in patients with congestive heart failure. The proposed mechanism includes the activation of nitric oxide and antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiplatelet effects, which in turn may improve endothelial function, lipid levels, blood pressure, and insulin resistance. While this research report didn’t say how much dark chocolate needs to be consumed to achieve results, a separate article says just 10 grams (40 calories) of dark chocolate is good for the heart.

It basically only takes 30 calories of dark chocolate a day to lower the blood pressure of the participants in a 2006 study published in “The Journal of the American Medical Association.” Participants consumed 6.3 grams of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate for a period of 18 weeks and saw their systolic blood pressure decline by 2.9 points and their diastolic blood pressure decline by 1.9 points. This change occurred without changes in body weight or other relevant factors. White chocolate doesn’t generate the same benefits.

During the conventional chocolate manufacturing process from fresh cocoa seeds to the final product, the concentration of flavonols is markedly reduced.
The term “dark chocolate” is misleading; nothing about the color of the chocolate indicates the flavonol content. For example, the process of adding alkali-potash to cocoa nibs, also known as “ditching” enhances the taste, texture, and appearance of the cocoa, eliminating the bitterness along with most of the active flavonols. Alkalization also results in a darkening of the cocoa, producing a very dark chocolate that is essentially devoid of flavonols. Fermentation and roasting also have a detrimental impact on the flavonol content of foods. In addition, the concentration of flavonols may depend on the origin of the raw cocoa. Milk chocolate has the lowest flavonol content compared with cocoa powder and dark chocolate. The caloric content of commercially available (around 500 kcal/100g) may cause weight gain, which is itself a risk factor for hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes.

While a heart shaped box filled with bite size pieces of fruits and vegetables isn’t exactly screaming LOVE, the best step in enjoying chocolate in moderation is to exercise, follow a heart healthy diet to enhance cardiovascular health. Enjoy chocolate in moderation and don’t eat the whole box! Only in moderation.

Parts of the information in this article comes from a research article titled “Chocolate for CV Health: What’s the Evidence?”