Q & A Library

Updated 4/01/2005

I do recommend a piece of good quality dark chocolate as a healthy snack, as long as you don't go overboard. An ounce or two a few times a week won't hurt you. In fact, while I wouldn't call chocolate a health food, it is a source of polyphenols (the same type of antioxidants found in red wine) and the fat it contains is stearic acid, which doesn't affect cholesterol levels. Some good news for chocolate lovers comes from a study indicating that flavonoids in dark chocolate are good for your heart. These compounds reduce the stickiness of platelets, cells that play an important role in blood clotting. As a result, blood takes longer to clot, reducing the danger of coronary artery blockages.

The findings about chocolate come from a study at the University of California at Davis where researchers asked 18 healthy adults to eat a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Blood tests conducted two and six hours later showed that the concentration of flavonoids had increased and that platelets took longer to clot after eating the chocolate than it did before.

Still unresolved is the question of why so many people, mainly women, crave chocolate. Compounds in chocolate similar to those in marijuana are probably not to blame because amounts are so small that you would have to eat pounds of chocolate at once to get an effect. Another study suggests that this common "addiction" may be culturally based since women all over the world don't respond to chocolate in the same way.

If your mother enjoys chocolates, go ahead and give her a box for Mother's Day. But make it a really special treat and get the good stuff - dark chocolate imported from Belgium or France is so richly delicious that a single piece as a snack or after-dinner treat will be more than satisfying. If you can't find good imported chocolate locally, any brand containing at least 70 percent cocoa is fine.

Andrew Weil, M.D.