More Chocolate News

in my february 11 blog titled "dark matters" i wrote about how good dark chocolate is for us. but it does contain extra calories- mostly from sugar- that we don't really need. to solve this issue and to see if the benefits from dark chocolate are real a new study is starting sponsored by the mars company (you know what they make) and a health institute. the main question they will be looking at is if the flavonoids in cacao will protect our hearts. 18,000 adults  will take 2, no taste pills a day for 4 years.  to equal the amount of flavonoids in the pills you would need to eat about 5 bars of dark chocolate a day. 4 years is a long time, maybe the results will be dramatic and come sooner. meanwhile i am going to continue enjoying my several ounces of dark chocolate every week. i just wonder if a pill that is isolating one part of the cacao is the answer or is it the combination of the whole bean that makes it beneficial? this has also been the issue with other foods such as garlic and with red wine. do we want our health benefits from food to come in a pill? is it possible that a pill can ever be as good as the real thing? isn't the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"?