Valentine’s Day chocolate: why you should spend more and eat less.

Whether you love Valentine’s Day or prefer it go back to Hallmark for good, it’s a day during which chocolate is likely to cross your mind.  So when it does, I want you to go there.  Go there, fully into the realm of chocolate, and then get yourself some!  But just one piece please, and make it a good one...

If you saw my post on brownies and ice cream then you know some of the health benefits of real chocolate.  Raw, unprocessed, nothing-added cocoa powder is an incredibly powerful antioxidant.  Even though you already know, let’s quickly recap what antioxidants are and why we care.  I like the NIH's explanation for its simplicity so I’m quoting it directly: “Antioxidants are substances that may protect your cells against the effects of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules produced when your body breaks down food, or by environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases.”  Antioxidant substances include: beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene, selenium, and vitamins A, C and E.

As is often the case, I feel that it is best to get antioxidants from food, not supplements.  It’s easy to do because antioxidants are abundant in fruits, vegetables, green tea, nuts, grains, chocolate, and even coffee, so you have plenty of delicious options for getting them every single day.

So, back to chocolate.  My husband and I decided to limit our Valentine’s Day spent to $10 each this year.  With that limit in mind, I hit the Ferry Building in San Francisco, which is full of local shops and eateries, to select some quality chocolate.  $17 later, I caught myself wondering whether I should have just bought the Reese’s.  But no, I should not have.  The key to eating chocolate is, according to me, spend more and eat less! 

Shopping Tip:  When you’re out shopping in health food stores, look for bars that are 70% or higher dark chocolate.  Most, but not all, will have sugar.  Besides the chocolate, other ingredients you might see that you can feel good about are cocoa butter, nuts, sea salt, vanilla, and some maybe some natural flavors if you trust the company (but never artificial colors or flavors!)

I feel somewhat badly doing this because I used to love these little guys, but for comparison purposes, let’s have a look at the ingredients in a Snickers bar: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, lactose, skim milk, milk fat, soy lecithin (see disclaimer below), artificial flavor (eek!)), peanuts, corn syrup (why?), sugar, skim milk, butter milkfat, partially hydrogenated (eek!) soybean oil, lactose, salt, egg whites (huh?), and artificial flavor (eek!)…

Very healthy:

• One Lucky Duck – raw, vegan, organic, really really really expensive but you’ll feel justified.  WARNING: they don’t add sugar, so this is pure, unadulterated cocoa…it’s bitter, not sweet, and it’ll knock your socks off.
• Skout Trailbars - organic Chocolate-Peanut Butter.  Impeccable ingredient list.  Go.  Eat one.  That is all.
• Dip fruit in chocolate – go back to the ice cream recipe, make it but don’t freeze it, and then use it as a drizzle over fresh fruit!  You can always feel good about homemade treats, and when they're delicious it's that much more gratifying.

Almost healthy (for those who just can’t kick it with bitter):

• Bug Bites - organic, small, and have a cute little bug factoids on each wrapper 
• Garden of Life – chocolate raspberry greens bar.  These are amazing, and packed with greens and probiotics to boot, but they’re down here in “almost healthy” because the first ingredient listed is honey. 

  Disclaimer: I can't fully endorse eating most chocolate bars on any regular basis.  That is in part because most of them contain sugar, but most also contain soy lecithin, which is an emulsifier that helps hold the bar together.  As is the case on many topics I discuss in this blog, the jury is out on whether soy lecithin is bad for us or not, but I don't think it's doing us any good either.  That all being said, I can and do fully endorse LIVING LIFE to the fullest, and if that for you includes eating chocolate on Valentine's Day, then by all means do so, just follow some of the tips above to make sure you're helping, not harming, your body during your indulgence!