Tuesday, January 15, 2008

ChocolateBet: January 16, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Shokolaat
London Fog Lifter (fleur de sel style, drk choc, elongated cylindrical shape)
Very Good
Wt.: ~.35 oz?
Calories: ?
$ 2/piece (corrected price)
Purchased from Shokolaat, Palo Alto, CA

Shokolaat is a restaurant, bar, and chocolate shop in downtown, Palo Alto.
Today was a foggy day. I hope this helps lift the fog! And, it might. It has (like the other chocolates from this shop) a nice balance of flavors and a good finish.

Dark Chocolate Health Benefits - Lancet

Chocolate in the News - Health Benefits (again)

(The excerpt below is from "Labels miss dark chocolate's full story" - which ran in The Register, by Register staff writer Dawn Sagario, (today) January 15, 2008. The article, and several others in the past few weeks, have commented on a Lancet editorial titled "The devil in the dark chocolate", December 22, 2007.)

"...A number of studies have linked the sweet treat to lowering blood pressure, decreasing LDL (or "bad") cholesterol and increasing blood flow.

The reason: Chocolate is made from cacao beans, which are naturally rich in flavanols - the plant-based compounds with powerful antioxidant properties that are also found in red wine.

But that chocolate fix may not be as good for you as you think, warned an editorial in December in the British medical journal Lancet.

That's because some chocolate manufacturers remove the flavanols due to their bitter taste, the Lancet editorial said, and darken the natural cocoa solids. So, while a chocolate may look dark, it lacks the healthy flavanols.

Companies rarely include flavanol content on their product labels, leaving consumers in the dark, the journal notes.

In addition, the percentage of cacao on a product label is not always related to the amount of flavanols in the chocolate..."

I've written previously about my personal experience (and blood test results) associated with eating chocolate (mostly dark chocolate) every day. I'll be very curious to see more research studies and findings in the future on this subject. In the meantime, I'll ask around to see if anyone is doing any studies on people eating dark chocolate like me. I also try to add cinnamon to various food items and drinks. Both of these are supposed to have some beneficial effects on moderating blood sugar I believe. Ah well, too much information...once again. Watch those flavanol counts I guess.

ChocolateBet: January 15, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Shokolaat
Brother Monk chocolate
(a leaf-shaped dark chocolate, with a dark chocolate center - flavored with Banyuls, a dessert wine from Southern France)
Very Good - Yum - very nice flavors, from start to finish
Wt. ~.4 oz.
$2/piece (corrected price)
Purchased from: Shokolaat, Palo Alto, CA
(Shokolaat is a restaurant, bar and chocolate shop in downtown Palo Alto.)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...