Chocolate! We all love chocolate for its great taste and versatile nature. Well, it not only tastes good but also has certain health benefits.

• Good for the heart:Dark Chocolate May Improve Blood Flow and Lower Blood Pressure as the flavanols in dark chocolate can stimulate the artery lining. This produces Nitric Oxide (NO), which sends signals to the arteries to relax, resulting in a lower resistance to blood flow and therefore reduces blood pressure.
• Rich in antioxidants:ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It is a measure of the antioxidant activity of foods. Dark chocolate has a high ORAC score due to the combination of flavanols, polyphenols and cathecins

But we need to be smart about selecting the right kind of chocolate since not all chocolates are created equal.Let's take a look at the different types of chocolate. These vary according to the proportion of cocoa used along with milk, fat and sugar.

• Milk- This is the most common chocolate available in department stores. It contains 10% cocoa solids, 12% milk solids along with fat and sugar.
• White- This chocolate contains 14% milk solids, 20% cocoa butter and 55% sugar but no cocoa solids.
• Compound chocolate - This replaces cocoa butter and involves combining cocoa with vegetable fat(hydrogenated fat/ palm fat). It is not very healthy and some countries do not define it as chocolate.
• Semisweet chocolate- Is dark chocolate withsugar and cocoa in equal amounts and does not contain milk solids. This chocolate can be used for cooking.
• Unsweetened chocolate- Is used for cooking or baking. This is pure chocolate mixed with fat to make it solid.
• Dark chocolate- Also called black or plain chocolate.This contains no milk and is made by adding fat and sugar to pure cocoa.

For health benefits, the cocoa percentages in chocolate should be 70- 90%, which means more of cocoa and less of fat and milk solids. Dark chocolate fulfils this criteria and ranks above the other commonly available chocolates in terms of health benefits and antioxidant levels.Milk chocolate for example does not have the same healthy effect as dark chocolate, because milk often prevents absorption of polyphenols.A 100 gram bar of dark chocolate with 70-90% cocoa contains11 grams of fibre along with minerals such as iron, magnesium, copper and manganese, potassium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium.

Too much of a good thing?

However moderation is the key as dark chocolate does contain certain amounts fat and sugar. The tested measure of dark chocolateis one small square twice a week. Stick to the recommendations if you want dark chocolate to be a benefit and not a liability.

Choosing healthy chocolate is important as major chocolate companies are lobbying for a change in the definition of chocolate which allows them to state partially hydrogenated vegetable oils as safe vegetable oils. They also want to include artificial sweeteners and milk substitutes in their products. The current FDA rules do not allow a product to be called chocolate if it contains one or more of the above ingredients. Also, be aware of cocoa substitutes that are labelled ‘chocolatey' or vegetable oils that are claimed to be made with chocolate.