Chocolate - good stuff and bad stuff - and what the stuff is
This is one of those stories that we all want to just read the headline, and firmly implant into our mind that it’s good to eat lots of chocolate. Well, it seems that chocolate does have several health benefits. Here is one story in the news recently that described one of them.
Study finds chocolate good for the heart
Houston Chronicle -
By LINDSEY TANNER AP Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University’s Hypertension Center stressed that the study results should not be viewed as license to gorge on chocolate.
Tiny amounts of dark chocolate lower blood pressure
I believe there have been other positive benefits found with chocolate, or at least some of the ingredients of chocolate and I think dark chocolate especially. But I do believe the fine print in all of these article stipulates that a small amount can be good for you and beneficial in some ways, but lot’s of chocolate can do bad things to you too. When I spent a winter gorging on my favorite sweets I found that come spring time I did not get as much ass as my fellow, thinner, girlfriends were getting, which made me want to eat more chocolate, and there the downward spiral began.
Something about one of the chemicals in chocolate that gives you a happy, almost “in love feeling”, like everything is okay. I think it is called something like DL-Phenalynine. This stuff is what makes me crave the candy so bad, but I recently found it is available in capsule form from the health food store, and now I am getting my good feelings without the extra calories.
More about the ingredients of my favorite snack food. - wikipedia chocolate entry