Sweet news - chocolate is healthy

It's official: chocolate – no matter the type – is good for you.

It has long been known that dark chocolate contains healthy antioxidants, but new research released in the British Medical Journal takes that one step further, claiming any chocolate – dark, milk or white – could cut the risk of developing heart disease by a third.

For a nation of chocolate lovers, that will come as sweet news.

Already we collectively spend up large on chocolate – $285.9 million in the past 12 months at supermarkets and service stations alone. That amounts to 13,725 tonnes – or, on average, 3.1kg for every man, woman and child.

Many of those with a sweet tooth live in Waikato. Hamiltonians, it turns out, are the country's biggest chocolate lovers, according to the latest Neilsen Consumer and Media Insight Survey. Households there, on average, eat 30% more chocolate a week than the rest of us. Next on the sweet tooth list are Aucklanders, followed by Wellingtonians and Invercargillites.

Even though the typical Kiwi eats 113 small chocolate bars a year we need not feel guilty.

Nutritionist Rene Schliebs said chocolate contained antioxidants and flavinoids – anti-inflammatory components which help lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease. Cocoa contained theobromine, which could help lower blood pressure, she said.

The added benefit of dark chocolate was it contained less sugar, said nutritionist and AUT University lecturer Carolyn Cairncross. "Eating dark chocolate can be beneficial, it gives a different taste sensation so you don't eat so much."

It also made you feel good, nutritionist and AUT lecturer Mikki Williden said. "Chocolates or wine are really good in terms of well-being and feeling good. It's nice to have a glass of wine and to have a piece of chocolate."

But all three nutritionists were quick to point out that chocolate's high fat and sugar content were still a cause for concern.

A 50g bar of chocolate contains the equivalent of four teaspoons of fat and seven teaspoons of sugar.

The latest study, done by Dr Oscar Franco and colleagues from Cambridge University in the UK, tried to establish whether a long-speculated association between eating chocolate and reduced risk of heart disease was real.

They reviewed seven studies of more than 100,000 people and compared rates of heart disease in those who ate the most chocolate with those who ate the least. Five of the seven studies found chocolate protective. They concluded that the "highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in stroke compared with lowest levels".

- © Fairfax NZ News