(3/25/99)
Take heart chocoholics!
The candy you love so much may actually help keep your arteries from
clogging up.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates says the latest study comes from
researchers at the University of California Davis.
If true, it's everything a chocoholic could hope for. It's candy. It
tastes good - and now perhaps, it's good for you.
This latest study presented to the American Chemical Society was funded by
the Mars company. That - some say - might taint the credibility a bit.
But the California research seems to support previous studies not
sponsored by the candy company.
So what supposedly makes this confection beneficial? Flavonoids!
They're a particular kind of antioxidant which goes after the bad
cholesterol in our arteries - Flavonoids are also found in red grapes and
blueberries.
Dr. Jeanette Roberts of University of Utah medicinal chemistry, says "For
example, blueberries probably ounce for ounce are the best source for these
things. But certainly the chocolate looks very interesting and may turn out to
be a lot more interesting than we think right now."
Researchers meeting in Spain last year claimed cocoa contains more than
600 chemicals which might help combat not only heart disease - but cancer as
well. It might even help relieve stress and protect the immune system.
But Utah's Dr. Roberts, who studies these compounds in medicinal
chemistry, says be careful. There's a downside.
"You still have to pay a lot of attention to the high caloric content of
products like that," she say. "Their study was based on eating two to three
candy bars per month, I believe it was. So it was not exactly one per day or
one per hour."
Last December, scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health reported
eating candy could increase longevity.
If so, what a life - plucking ever so politely from these pantries and
packages - particularly petite pieces and plates of pacifying and palatble
parfaits.
