Benefits of chocolate at heart of indulgence

I can't resist biting into a piece of chocolate, especially when Valentine's Day is upon us and the stuff seems to be everywhere.

I am not alone, of course. On average we eat 12 pounds of chocolate per person per year. I can't resist writing about the health benefits of chocolate, either. But, I write with caution.
Chocolate -- like those other favorites, coffee and red wine -- has loads of natural health-enhancing ingredients.

Chocolate has caffeine, phenylethylamines, endorphins, catchins, phenols and anandamide.
What was that again? You probably don't know of these chemicals, but for certain you experience their effects every day.

Caffeine increases wakefulness and some intellectual activity. A chocolate bar has 6g or one-twentieth the amount of caffeine as does a cup of coffee.

As for phenylethylamine -- these are natural chemicals released by the brain when you fall in love. That explains Valentine's Day chocolate gifts.

Endorphins are chemicals that reduce pain and elevate one's mood, something we can use on short winter days.

Catchins are antioxidants, which may protect against cancer and heart disease and are also found in black tea. Additionally, chocolate contains phenols, found in red wine and vegetables.
Lastly, there is anadamide, which gives a mild natural "high" -- by attaching on the same brain receptors as marijuana does. So, eating chocolate is a better -- and legal -- option to "inhaling."

As if these were not enough good reason to overcome the guilt of eating chocolate, here is another: A group of scientists at Johns Hopkins was studying the effect of aspirin on the stickiness of blood and the effect on platelets. Individuals who were eating or drinking caffeinated drinks, grapefruit juice, wine or chocolate, were excluded because these foods are known to have an effect similar to aspirin in thinning the blood and preventing a heart attack.

Of the 1,200 people in the study, 139 failed to keep away from chocolate. These chocoholics were kicked out of the study -- but Dr. Diane Becker, the lead scientist, decided to put their blood through 200 different tests to see the effect of chocolate on platelets.

To the surprise of the scientific community, even everyday amounts of chocolate led to substantial thinning of blood. Blood from the chocolate eaters took 7 seconds longer to clot compared to the nonchocolate eaters. This means that the chocolate was potentially providing blood-thinning and heart-attack preventing effects similar to aspirin.

Now, chocolate is not a substitute for aspirin, yet it has similar properties. The researches are thankful to these 139 noncompliant chocoholics -- because now a large and more controlled study will be done to look at the effect of chocolate.

The reason chocolate gets a bad rap among nutritionists is all the stuffing that goes along with it: the sugar, caramel, nuts, marshmallows and the calories. Also, not all chocolate is healthful.

Dark chocolate is more beneficial than light or milk chocolate. For some reason, milk prevents the absorption of healthy chemicals, robbing the chocolate and cocoa of its benefits. So when you choose chocolate, choose it with 80 percent dark chocolate (most candy bars have only 20 percent).

Oops -- almost forgot to mention (here is the caution): those 12 pounds of chocolate we eat per year translate to 80 calories per day with 4.5g of fat. So eat in moderation -- but without guilt.

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