Have you ever wondered why chocolate is often packaged in boxes of red hearts? Is it just marketing? A way to catch your eye? Well, it turns out that chocolate indeed is good for your heart giving new meaning to those packages that seem to call out our names.

It’s full of what?
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants. Dark chocolate has more antioxidants per gram than red wine, green tea and berry fruits. It also has a polyphenol that can sit on our bad cholesterol, the LDL, and keep it from being oxidized. As a result, these polyphenols lower our bad cholesterol as well as triglyceride fats. It can also raise our good cholesterol, the HDL. As a result, dark chocolate, in moderation, can lower our chance of developing hardening of our arteries, atherosclerosis.

• There’s a chemical in the cocoa bean that mimics the effect of aspirin. It can reduce the clumping together of platelets in our blood which can lead to life threatening clots
  
  
• Dark chocolate is flavonoid rich. Flavonoids are known to lower blood pressure. As we age, our blood vessels get more rigid. Flavonoids are known to improve blood flow in our vessels. Harvard studies show drinking cocoa measures healthier blood vessel function. Cocoa flavanols can potentially increase blood flow to our brain and help stave off heart disease in smokers (better yet, give up smoking!)
  

• The use of cocoa to help diarrhea dates back to the 16th century. Researchers discovered that a chemical in cocoa beans can limit the development of fluids that cause diarrhea. Cocoa flavonoids can bind to and inhibit a protein in the intestines called CFTR, which regulates fluid secretion in the small intestines. Scientists believe that the flavonoids in cocoa beans can be used to create natural supplements to ease diarrhea
  
  
• Dark chocolate has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. Insulin resistance can contribute to the development of diabetes.

Recent manufacturing processes have been developed to retain consistent flavonoid levels in dark chocolate. Remember don’t confuse the science as it relates to cocoa rich chocolate bars and commercial chocolate bars. While I too love milk chocolate (and yes, it is high in calcium), it is loaded in fat and calories and lacks the benefit of the cocoa rich flavonoids and polyphenols. White chocolate is made from cocoa butter and not cocoa beans at all. Most milk chocolate has only 20% cocoa solids.

H&L

Dr. Marla Shapiro, Assoc. Prof. at the University of Toronto, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine; she's CTV's Medical Consultant on Canada AM; and a regular Globe and Mail health columnist.