Chocolate

The take home message is COCOA.

When I was giving the overview of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans , I mentioned that they had given a statement on chocolate.  The upshot being that it was a source of flavanoids but a highly caloric source.  Since it was not the ONLY source, and most persons do not have room for the extra calories, it was not recommended as a regular dietary component.

I looked at the statement again today because someone had talked to me about eating a piece of a chocolate bar from time to time to feed her craving.  She had(has) the bar in her desk drawer.  There is nothing wrong with that - as long as we keep an eye on what we need in regards to caloric intake and do not regularly - and I really mean - hardly ever - go over that amount, it doesn't matter if we get some sugar and empty cals.  Her qualifier however, was that she enjoyed that chocolate bar BECAUSE of the health promoting properties, antioxidants is what she said.  Flavanoids have antioxidant properties (like fruits and vegetables also have antioxidant properties).  Ah, antioxidants are chemicals that can clean up free radical damage - i.e bad stuff.

It was the flavanoid part of her disclosure that got my attention and drew me back to the DGAs.  She also sent me the nutrient facts panel for her bar and I can tell you that the DGAs are correct - chocolate is incredibly calorie dense - her bar has 5 cals per gram.  It also has a good deal of saturated fat and the first ingredient on the label - thus indicating its predominance- is sugar.

Fruits and vegetables have less than 1 calorie per gram and grains have around 3 calories per gram - give or take of course.  

My Hershey cocoa powder has no other ingredients and has 2 cals per gram and no saturated fat.  I can use a lot of it to get the same 50 calories in my friends part of a chocolate bar and then I add a splenda substitute to sweeten it.

Are you craving chocolate now?  I have two great recipes on You Tube - chocolate cookies and chocolate cake.