Chocolate is good for you!

I picked up a magazing on the weekend because on the cover it claimed “Chocolate that’s good for you.” The article quoted all sorts of interesting research which I was already aware of – in moderation good chocolate is good for you. What freaked me out, thouigh, was the box at the bottom of the apge that compared several brands for their “goodness”. The range was almost entirely of confectionairy – not chocolate! OK, allow me to climb on my high horse for a minute here please, a snickers is not real chocolate. It barely contains any resemblance of the good stuff that is in chocolate. If you are eating chocolate for health – but especially for pleasure – stick to quality dark chocolate, where the only ingredients are cocoa solids (or cocoa liquor), cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla. Only exception to this list is soya lecitithin which is just an emulsifier added to make it easier for chefs to use. The less processing that occurs during the chocolate production the more of the health benefits will be achieved. Dagoba, an American brand that can be found in Wholeoods stores in the States and Australia and Fresh and Wild in the UK, makes big claims to this. Domori, an Italian maker, make it their aim to minimise the alterations to the chocolate from pod to bar. Or, you could just eat raw cacao! Think I’ll save the information on that for another day!