Chocolate Health
Want a Cookie? Of course you do!
The chocolate industry has made sure that consumers understand the potential health benefits of chocolate. According to Barry Callebaut, there are more than 700 components in chocolate, and about one third of them are known to be good for the human body. Most of these excellent components are the plant based chemicals that work as anti-oxidants; those magical wonder-chemicals that transform free radicals from evil agents of cellular destruction into relatively harmless, worry-free molecules. But many of the positive qualities of the raw cacao bean are lost in the processing, where heat may degrade and added ingredients dilute the power of natural chocolate.
Tummyache? Have some chocolate!
You might think that, in order to get the major benefits of chocolate, you'll need to eat the unsweetened nibs-something only the truest, hard core chocoholics would eat (and even they make faces when they do). But some chocolate companies are working on increasing the health-positive aspects of chocolate without ruining the taste we all love. We're all familiar with the new, high chocolate content bars from Dove and Hersheys, and more people are eating dark chocolate as a healthy alternative to milkier, more traditional sweets.
Added Anti-Oxidants
But chocolate companies are going beyond consumer education: they're actually adding things to the recipe, or manipulating the processing to keep the healthy components in the final chocolate products. Barry Callebaut has created a chocolate extra-high in anti-oxidants -containing, in fact, 80% of the anti-oxidant power of raw chocolate and twice the antioxidants found in other chocolates. The secret seems to be in the fermentation, drying and roasting processes-but the technicalities are anybody's guess. (Not sure what anti-oxidants are? Check out our painfully thorough description of chocolate chemistry.)
In another innovation, Callebaut announced in October 2007 that the company was releasing a "probiotic" chocolate-one containing beneficial bacteria shown to increase digestive health. Probiotics are present in active yogurt cultures, and many people take them in capsule form to combat problems with candida (yeast) and food allergies. Probiotic chocolate, while not the sexiest-sounding chocolate around, makes good sense when you learn that the beneficial bacteria survive four times longer in chocolate than they do in milk products. And, for people with milk allergies or lactose intolerance (lactose intolerance is common to about 75% of the world population), probiotic chocolate may be a lovely way of having one's digestive cake and eating it too. The only thing that gives one pause is the combination of the strictly pro-health action of intestinal bacteria and the long-term luxe of our Favorite Food. Couldn't they find a nicer name for it? Will the name increase or decrease product sales? Only time will tell!
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How Chocolate is made