Chocolate: Healthy or Harmful?

Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite food is, the first thing that pops into my mind is chocolate: sweet, creamy, melt-in-my-mouth goodness. But is chocolate the unhealthy, fattening, acne-causing curse my mother warned me about, or are those rumors of health benefits and antioxidants really true?

Cocoa is full of antioxidants, it has higher amounts in it than the same serving size of green tea and red wine. Antioxidants help keep your heart healthy and prevent cancer by slowing cell destruction. Also, the flavanoids and procyanidins can control inflammation and keep blood vessels healthy. Chocolate is proven not to cause acne, as well. Of course, chocolate is not all cocoa, so it's health benefits are somewhat diluted. It contains cocoa, but it also contains many other ingredients that may include sugar, milk, lecithin (found in egg yolks), other flavorings and vegetable oil.

We also have to remember that the darker the chocolate, the more cocoa (antioxidants, flavanols, and procyanidins) it contains, making it healthier and more beneficial. White chocolate contains vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter which, in turn, has none of the health benefits of milk or dark chocolate. White chocolate isn't even considered "chocolate" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of its lack of cocoa.

So chocolate is full of antioxidants, flavanols, and procyanidins which are all beneficial to keeping our bodies healthy and spry and does not cause blemishes or pimples. But DO NOT replace your daily fruit intake with chocolate because fruits, along with being chock-full of flavanoids, also have vitamins, minerals and other phytochemicals that protect our bodies and prevent cancer in different ways. The rumored health benefits are true, chocolate is healthy for you, but just remember that fruits and vegetables can never be replaced by chocolate, or any other source of antioxidants. So eat up! And enjoy your chocolate!