Another Reason to eat chocolate…antioxidants.

If you needed an excuse to eat chocolate then you might just have found one. Chocolate has been found to contain high levels of a nutrient called 'catechins', making it a richer source of antioxidants than tea. The health benefits of catechins have been studied extensively in humans. It has been found that epicatechin, which is found in cocoa, can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

But before you go reaching for that whole block, blocks of chocolate also contain cocoa butter and sugar. The cocoa butter is very high in fat and, in combination with the sugar, gives block chocolate its well-deserved reputation as a high kilojoule food. Also, there is some evidence that when cocoa is consumed with milk products, the ability to absorb the good antioxidants is reduced. Therefore the ‘healthiest’ option for that chocolate hit is a chocolate with high percentage cocoa or eating or drinking cocoa powder, which will give you all the antioxidants, without the high amounts of added fat and sugar.

Eating small amounts of dark chocolate can be consistent with a healthy diet and will offer the protection of extra antioxidants. If you have an active lifestyle and can afford the extra kilojoules in your diet, then block chocolate could be your choice.  But if you want to avoid extra kilojoules then the best option is to use cocoa powder in a drink or used in low kilojoule recipes.