6 Simple Health Tips for Buying Chocolate

Shopping for "good" chocolate is kind of like searching for a viable online date. Approach the market without a plan and it's easy to get duped by glossy packaging and false claims. Know what you're looking for, though, and you can find yourself a sweetie with substance -- guaranteed to reduce your stress levels, ignite your sex life, and make your heart sing from the first blissful encounter. In fact, findings from a new long-term study in Heart journal involving 25,000 volunteers suggest that eating up to 3.5 ounces of high-quality chocolate per day can significantly reduce risks of heart disease and stroke. Sort through the fakes, protect your heart, and treat your valentine to the good stuff, with these six simple tips for buying the best healthy chocolate on the market: 1. More Bitter, More Better The term "dark" chocolate isn't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, so any bar can be labeled as "dark" -- even if it's not. From a health perspective, what you're investing in when you buy dark chocolate, as opposed to milk or white, is a higher concentration of flavanols and polyphenols -- antioxidants that disarm free radicals associated with disease. In fact, gram-for-gram, dark chocolate has been shown to contain significantly greater antioxidant capacity than blueberries! Manufacturers will often list the cacao percentage on the label, but you'll need at least 70 percent to reap the health benefits. 2. Cocoa Butter or Bust The good fat in "good" chocolate is...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news