By Sara Novak of Planet Green and Jake Richardson of Care2 Green Living

.

Once in a blue moon, I’ll hear some positive news on the healthy eating front and dark chocolate has time and time again come out on top. This along with the antioxidants in wine is enough to make you jump for joy. We know that this delectable sweet treat provides a wealth of health benefits, but how much is too much?

Recently, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, authors of YOU: On a Diet, answered some important questions on the specifics of dark chocolate consumption. According to the article in the Sun Setinel, you don’t need a whole bar to get a healthy dose of antioxidants. The flavonoids in dark chocolate are so powerful that a daily piece the size of a Hershey’s kiss can lower your blood pressure.

While this is an ideal size comparison, it’s not a good quality comparison because the chocolate cannot be milk chocolate. The chocolate should be fair trade, organic, and at least 70 percent cocoa. Avoid any filling like peanut butter, which could be laced with hydrogenated oils.

Dark chocolate and heart disease

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal and reported on CBS News, German researchers found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day (one square of a chocolate bar) had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke.

Dark chocolate and stroke protection

I wrote about another study published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. This new study found that dark chocolate can provide protection after a stroke has already occurred.

A specific chemical found in dark chocolate called epicatechin appears to do the trick. We already know that it can prevent strokes from happening and now we know that it can provide protection against stroke damage.

Meanwhile, according to the website, Nutritiondata.com, a one ounce serving of dark chocolate contains 19 percent of the US RDA for iron. Yet an ounce of beef sirloin only contains 3 percent.

Is dark chocolate really that high in iron? Why hasn’t anyone told me this?

Data from USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference shows: Chocolate, dark, 70-85 percent cacao solids, value per 100 grams is 11.90 milligrams of iron. Beef, bottom sirloin, tri-tip roast, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0″ fat, all grades, cooked, roasted, value per 100 grams is 1.66 milligrams of iron. Beef, ground, 70 percent lean meat / 30 percent fat, crumbles, cooked, pan-browned, value per 100 grams is 2.48 milligrams of iron. So these two information sources state that dark chocolate does contain more iron than some cuts of beef, and not just a little more.

.

Image Credits: Define Body

Article Source: Green.Yahoo Blog, Care2GreenLiving

Nowadays, everyone seem concerned about their health and what they can do to prevent oneself from being sick or at least keep ourselves fit. We keep reading articles and it’s pretty obvious and more convenient to seek updates using the Internet. But the BIG question is the reliability or how true those updates that we have read. It would be depressing to read long articles and then later on find that it’s a hoax. As I was browsing the Internet to check for any updates, I have found a site too where most contributors and medical practitioners. So maybe you might wanna check this Healthcare Articles.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – There’s reassuring news for coffee lovers with type 2 diabetes. Drinking even fairly high amounts of coffee does not raise the risk of developing heart diseases in diabetic men or increase their risk of dying early, according to a brief report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Although research involving people in the general population has suggested no harmful effects on the heart from drinking coffee, there’s been little information about any effect in people with diabetes, Dr. Rob M. van Dam and colleagues point out. Recently, however, there has been evidence suggesting that coffee consumption may impair diabetics’ ability to process glucose.

To look into this, van Dam, from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues studied data on 3497 diabetic men who were followed from 1986 to 2004. None of them had cardiovascular disease at the outset, and they all completed several dietary questionnaires during follow-up.
The researchers found that consumption of coffee, even four or more cups per day, did not significantly increase the risk of heart disease or the odds of dying during the study period, compared with subjects who did not drink any coffee.
The same held true whether or not the subjects smoked and regardless of how long they had had diabetes.
“Our findings do not support the hypothesis that habitual caffeinated coffee consumption increases risk of cardiovascular events or mortality among individuals with type 2 diabetes,” the authors conclude.
SOURCE: Diabetes Care, June 2009.