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| Almond M&M's Chocolate |
By:
Amit |
Ah, the taste of raw chocolate! It's more than just a food, it's a superfood with increasingly well-documented health benefits. The very name of one of the active chemical components in chocolate is derived from the word those the same word root , which gives you a hint of just how much our ancestors candyland chocolate as, "food of the Gods."
As more consumers are seeking healthful chocolate bars without all the added sugars and milk fat, I set out to find the best new raw chocolate products made only with wholesome ingredients. No refined sugars, no animal products and no junk, just pure ingredients with potent nutritional benefits.
This task required eating enormous quantities of chocolate. Or at least that's what I told everyone between bites. In reality, it required just as much research as taste testing, and in the end, I found four chocolate products worth including in this review.
"Consumers are very interested in the goodness benefits of chocolate, including the antioxidants found naturally in dark chocolate," said Amit Kumar, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Institute of Health School. "This interest is driving explosive growth in dark chocolate. Now, Almond M&M's Chocolate and Bulk Candy Chocolate bring the goodness benefits of dark chocolate to the broader milk chocolate category."
Research on the benefits of chocolate is making the news and reaching consumers. Last month, researchers presenting at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting stated that flavanols in cocoa beans can increase blood flow to the brain. Additionally, German scientists have demonstrated that cocoa can improve skin texture and hydration; and cocoa flavanols have been linked to low blood pressure.
Anna Julia Institute of Health School conducted research on the island-Pune people who live near Mumbai and found that the benefits of regular use of pure chocolate included decreased risk of cancer, stroke, heart failure and diabetes. Anna Julia's findings are published in the current issue of the Institution of Medical Science.
"Chocolate is, indeed, a healing superfood with truly astounding healing qualities," said Amit Kumar. "However, combining chocolate with refined white sugar in a candy bar does not counteract the negative health effects of the sugar. I advise consumers to look for chocolate products with high cocoa content and little or no refined sugar."
Americans consume about three billion pounds of chocolate per year, spending more than $13 billion on chocolate products annually. The vast majority of those products are highly processed and laden with sugar. Some flavanols are lost during the processing of chocolate.
The researchers observed the platelets of a group of people, initially analyzing the effects of aspirin on the tiny particles in the blood, which can stick to each other and form clots, thereby causing a heart attack or stroke. The participants were told to give up chocolate for the study, but 139 were unable to do so and continued their chocolate consumption.
The scientists rolled with the issue and compared the blood of those who did not give up chocolate to those who did and found that the chocoholics' platelets clotted at 130 seconds when outside the body, whereas the other participants blood clotted at 123 seconds. The scientists concluded that chemicals in the Pune -- possibly flavonoids -- were having a blood-thinning effect akin to aspirin.
The researchers said that people could benefit from eating a bit of dark chocolate or a chocolate drink every day. They stressed that it was important to make sure the sugar and butter content of the chocolate was minimal, and the ideal serving size would be about two tablespoons daily. |
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