Americans love chocolate. In fact, millions of us are admitted "chocoholics." U.S. chocolate consumption is around 3.3 billion pounds per year, according to the National Confectioners Association. That's nearly 12 pounds for every man, woman and child in the nation.
But for more than 21 million Americans with diabetes, forbidden treats - such as luscious dark chocolate truffles - are not part of a healthy diet. Many of us believe that sinfully sweet indulgences must be unhealthy, especially for diabetics. Or are they?
The good news is that recent clinical studies show some types of chocolates actually have significant health benefits. Dark chocolates, particularly those made with minimal processing, are high in flavonoids, which are plant compounds with potent antioxidant properties.
Antioxidants are known to gobble up free radicals - the killer compounds that harm cell membranes, damage the heart, attack DNA, cause aging, and make heart attacks and cancer far more likely.
It may surprise you to know that dark chocolate actually has more antioxidants per gram than red wine, green tea, peanuts, cranberries, apples, and many other fruits and vegetables that also are rich in antioxidants.
One independent study led by Claudio Ferri and researchers at the University of L'Aquila in Italy found that consuming dark chocolate not only lowers blood pressure and cholesterol as some prior studies suggest, but also improves the body's processing of sugar - and in theory, guards against diabetes. Jeffrey B. Blumberg of Tufts University, who collaborated on the study, says "the new finding suggests that specific flavonoids have beneficial effects on several measures of health."
Dark chocolate contains more flavonoids and less saturated fat than milk chocolate. Cocoa powder and baking chocolate contain even more flavonoids than dark chocolate, while white chocolate has none. The flavonoids in chocolate, by the way, are called flavanols.
Source : articlesbase
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