Chocolate's a treat not a health food, despite benefits: Harvard

With Halloween right around the corner, it's worth noting that chocolate may not be as beneficial to your heart health and memory as you may have been led to believe.

An article in Harvard Women's Health Watch notes that, while observational studies have linked chocolate consumption to reductions in heart disease and dementia, the observed connection is not one of cause-and-effect. 

And any health benefits derived from snacking on chocolate likely comes from flavanols, a naturally-occurring compound found in cocoa beans, not the chocolate itself, according to the article. Flavanols are recognized as antioxidants.

Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said in a statement that flavanols are one of the "most promising" nutritional interventions for helping to reduce the risk of heart disease.

She and her colleague, Dr. Howard Sesso, are currently conducting a randomized trial with 18,000 participants, to test the effectiveness of consuming 750 mg of cocoa flavanols a day in capsule form.

But chocolate contains varying amounts of flavanol, depending on how the cocoa beans are grown and processed, the article states.

As well, the flavanol content depends on the ratio of cocoa powder to fat and sugar used in the final chocolate product.

For example, naturally processed unsweetened cocoa is a good source of flavanols and is relativey low in calories, the article says. But consumers may have to eat more calories of more palatable chocolate products to consume 750 mg of flavanols.

It may be necessary to consume more than 700 calories of dark chocolate and more than 1,000 calories of milk chocolate to get 750 mg of flavanols, the study says. Consuming more than 1,000 calories of milk chocolate far exceeds the daily recommended intake of sugar and saturated fat, the article says.

For example, a Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar that weighs 42 grams contains 220 calories and four grams of fat, according to the website myfitnesspal.com.

Meanwhile, white chocolate has no flavanols, the Harvard article says.

The article says that, even when consumers are unsure about the flavanol content of a particular product, chocolate is still a better alternative to other sweets such as candy or baked goods.

"A 1.5-ounce serving a few times a week is fine," the article states. "So is warming up with a steaming cup of cocoa in the cold days ahead. You may be getting an unknown dose of flavanols, but if you watch the calories you shouldn’t be doing yourself any harm.”