Soon after I got my cholesterol results back, I started hearing reports about how dark chocolate is one of the richest antioxidant foods you can eat. This was something I had to research more! 

Here's what I learned: According to a University of California study, chocolate has antioxidant properties and may contribute to heart health.  Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than milk chocolate (and less milk fat).  

Key things I think about when choosing chocolate:

• In order to get the antioxidant benefits of chocolate, I need to eat real chocolate - that means getting gourmet chocolate rather than something in the supermarket that's loaded with sugar, milk, vegetable oil and artificial flavors.

• Chocolate still has sugar and fat, so I can't have huge amounts of it.

• A chocolate with a higher % of cacao has less sugar and more antioxidants per ounce. Some gourmet chocolate makers print the % of cacao they use right on the bar. I buy gourmet chocolate bars with between 60% and 90% cacao.

• Chocolate varies a lot in flavor depending on where it comes from and the quality of the cacao.

Keeping this in mind, I choose to buy gourmet chocolate in bar form, breaking off a small square each day as a special treat after dinner.  Sometimes I buy pre-wrapped pieces of high cacao chocolate to keep things neat & keep me honest about how much I'm eating. Godiva and Ghirardelli are among the companies that make pre-wrapped pieces.

More Information about Cholesterol and Food

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