1. Chocolate in the News
Today we are going to talk about chocolate, which is a very popular topic. Many people like chocolate, including me (if that is true). And chocolate has been in the news a great deal lately.
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2. Objectives Discuss the different types of chocolate
Discuss potential health benefits of chocolate
Discuss potential concerns of eating chocolate
Evaluate how chocolate can fit into a healthy diet.
Some people say there is a type of chocolate for everyone because it comes in so many varieties. There is dark, milk, white, semisweet, and bittersweet chocolate. You can get it in a candy bar, mixed with nuts and caramel, in a solid bar, or you can get chocolate with mint or fruit in it.
Some chocolate bars are now being promoted as healthful, filled with antioxidants. Is that really true? Today we’ll look at the different types of chocolate, the research claims being made for chocolate, some potential health concerns, and we’ll also discuss whether chocolate can fit into a healthy diet.

3. What Is Chocolate?
Chocolate is made from the ground seeds of the cacao tree.
Used for thousands of years
First made into drinks, today made into food as well
One of the most popular flavors in the world
We have all seen chocolate, but does anyone know what chocolate really is? Chocolate is made from the seeds of cacao trees. These seeds are called cocoa beans. The cacao trees grow in tropical parts of the world, such as Western Africa and South America. Chocolate has been used for thousands of years, but not in the ways we typically see it today. It was first made into drinks that were often extremely bitter. Now we see chocolate most often made into bars and other types of food. It is however still used to make some drinks, such as hot chocolate or chocolate milk. Different parts of the world have different tastes for chocolate and there are many different varieties made.

4. Where Does Chocolate Come From?
Inside the fruit are the cocoa beans
Dried cocoa beans
Cacao Tree with ripe fruit
If you’re picturing a bar of chocolate, you may be wondering how we get chocolate from the seeds on a tree.
Chocolate comes from the cocoa beans inside the fruit of the cacao tree. The beans are removed from the fruit and fermented for a few days and then dried. Once dried, the beans are roasted to bring out their flavor. Flavors of beans from different parts of the world vary, and are often mixed to create a unique taste. After roasting, the shells of the beans are removed and the inside is ground. Since the beans are so high in fat, this actually creates a liquid know as cocoa liquor. This can either be used as is, or it can be pressed to produce cocoa butter and cocoa powder.
Cocoa powder
Cocoa liquor

5. Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate What’s the Difference?
Dark Chocolate—tastes semisweet
Cocoa liqueur, cocoa butter, sugar, sometimes vanilla, no milk
Milk Chocolate—tastes sweet
Milk, less cocoa liqueur, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla
Do we have any dark chocolate lovers in the room? How many prefer milk chocolate?
There is a definite difference in taste between dark and milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has at least 70% cocoa, while milk chocolate usually has less than 50% cocoa. When we hear of health benefits from chocolate, scientists are usually talking about benefits from dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains more antioxidants, minerals, and flavonols than milk chocolate because it has undergone less processing.

6. What About Other Types of Chocolate?
White Chocolate- made from some of the same ingredients
Sugar, cocoa butter, milk, sometimes lecithin, sometimes vanilla, no chocolate liquor or cocoa powder
With no cocoa liquor is it not technically considered chocolate
For Cooking
Semisweet Chocolate
Bittersweet Chocolate
What about white chocolate? Many people wonder what exactly white chocolate is. It is made with many of the same ingredients as regular chocolate and a few extras as well. It is not technically considered chocolate according to the FDA since it does not contain cocoa liquor. It does, however, still contain cocoa butter which helps give it the same smooth texture of chocolate.
Semisweet chocolate and bittersweet chocolate are both used for cooking. In baking, the two can be used interchangeably. Semisweet chocolate is dark chocolate with a lower sugar content, while bittersweet chocolate has even less sugar than semisweet. It also has more cocoa liquor, which increases the bitter taste.

7. What Are Flavonoids and Flavonols?
Flavonoids are a type of polyphenols
More than 4,000 different flavonoids exist
Naturally found in many different plant foods
They provide certain health benefits- many act as antioxidants
Flavonols are one type of flavonoid.
To understand the health benefits of chocolate, it is important to know what exactly flavonoids and flavonols are.
Flavonoids are a type of polyphenols, while flavonols are a type of flavonoids. They are compounds found naturally in many different foods and drinks, such as tea, red wine, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and chocolate. Many have antioxidant properties, which help protect against certain diseases. Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is higher in flavonoids than many fruits and vegetables. This could be due to the fact that it is condensed and not diluted with water, since fruits and vegetables are very high in water.

8. Potential Health Benefits of Chocolate
Flavonoids decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension
Flavonols decrease LDL “bad” cholesterol and increase HDL “good” cholesterol
Dark chocolate consumption linked to improvement in insulin sensitivity
Potential health benefits from the consumption of chocolate are numerous, but are usually related mostly to dark chocolate. Research indicates that dark chocolate may decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension. In one study, the flavonoids in dark chocolate significantly decreased the blood pressure of the participants, but white chocolate did not. The flavonols are thought to decrease LDL cholesterol, which is sometimes referred to as the “bad cholesterol,” and increase the HDL cholesterol, also called the “good cholesterol”. Dark chocolate has also been found to improve insulin sensitivity, meaning that glucose can more easily get into the cells where it can be used for energy.

9. Potential Health Benefits of Chocolate
Keeps blood platelets from clumping together
Increases blood vessel flexibility
Consuming antioxidant rich foods like chocolate decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease
As you have seen, there are many potential health benefits associated with chocolate. Here are even more benefits that have been studied related to chocolate’s effects on the body. Dark chocolate may keep blood platelets from clumping together and forming something called a clot. Strokes and heart attacks can be caused by clots. Chocolate may also increase blood vessel flexibility which is important for heart and blood vessel health. Rigid blood vessels allow for less expansion when needed. This can not only increase blood pressure but can also lead to things like heart attack and cardiovascular disease. It is also well known that consumption of antioxidant rich foods can decrease a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Chocolate has high levels of the disease fighting antioxidant, flavonoid.

10. Isn’t Chocolate High in Fat?
Fat comes from the cocoa butter and is made of both saturated and unsaturated fat
The saturated fat can have a negative health impact
The unsaturated fat is a heart-healthy fat also found in olive oil- still high in calories
Moderation is the key
With all this talk of how healthy chocolate is, some of you may be asking yourselves, isn’t there a lot of fat and calories in chocolate?
The answer is yes, there is. The fat that is found in chocolate comes from the cocoa butter. This contains both saturated and unsaturated fat. The unsaturated fat is good for the heart, but you should remember that it still contains the same number of calories as any other fat. The saturated fat is the kind that we need to be especially careful of and monitor in our diets. With chocolate, as with most foods, moderation is the key. We know that it can be consumed to benefit our health, but too much can also add unnecessary fat and calories to the diet. It is important to remember that fat and calories are also added by other ingredients as well, such as the milk in milk chocolate.

11. How Much Chocolate?
Dark chocolate is recommended because it has more of the heart healthy flavonols and flavonoids than milk chocolate.
To receive the health benefits of chocolate, some studies have found you would need to eat about 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate per day.
Although experts have not determined for sure the amount of chocolate that should be eaten to improve health, they think it may be about 3.5 ounces per day
Milk chocolate is not as beneficial as dark chocolate because during processing many of the flavonoids are removed. Without these flavonoids, the health benefits of chocolate also decrease. Milk chocolate does however have some flavonoids and can still contribute to overall intake of antioxidants.
But 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate is quite a bit.
Examples: Dove individually wrapped dark chocolate pieces, 9.25 pieces=3.5 ounces, and over 400 calories
Dove Rich Dark Chocolate bar is slightly over 3.5 ounces, and slightly over 500 calories
What are some potential drawbacks of eating that much dark chocolate?
(Calories, sugar, and fat )

12. Recent News
New study found only 6 grams of dark chocolate necessary to show positive results
About 1 and ½ Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Kisses (30 calories, 2 grams of fat, 4 grams of sugar)
Decreased blood pressure in middle-aged men and women with slightly high blood pressure
A recent study in Germany found that only a small amount of chocolate is necessary to show health benefits. Rather than the 3.5 ounces some researchers think is needed, this study showed only 6 grams of dark chocolate was needed. This is equal to only about 1 and ½ Hershey’s kisses. The people in the study, both men and women, ate 6 grams of dark chocolate a day for 18 weeks and showed a significant decrease in blood pressure. This study is very important because it shows that small amounts can still be beneficial, without adding significant amounts of calories, fat, and sugar.

13. Ongoing Studies How much chocolate should be eaten
How to keep high levels of flavonoids without affecting the taste
Chocolate and aging
There are still many ongoing studies that continue to look into the affects of chocolate on health.
There is good news for milk chocolate lovers! Some chocolate makers are studying ways to keep flavonoid levels at their highest without affecting the taste of the chocolate. Does this mean that sometime in the future milk chocolate could have the same flavonoid levels dark chocolate does now? Hopefully, but it’s too soon to tell.
There is also some work being done on chocolate and its affect on aging. It is related to chocolate’s antioxidant properties. More research is still being done on the topic.

14. What Adds Calories? In the chocolate making- sugar, milk, added fat
In chocolate bars
Caramel
Peanut butter
Nuts
Marshmallow
Added fat and sugar
Eggs
Milk
We have been focusing on the calories and fat in the chocolate itself. But there is one important factor that was have not mentioned. Other than the fat and calories in the chocolate itself, most chocolate is mixed with other ingredients. These ingredients add more fat, sugar, and calories to the chocolate. It is important to pay attention to what is in the chocolate you are eating and what the total calories are. This is where reading the nutrition labels of foods becomes very important.

15. Watch The Label!
Look for total calories, total fat, sodium (especially if you need to watch your blood pressure), and sugar (if you’re diabetic)
Look at the serving size
Example: Dove Dark Chocolate Bar (1 oz)
Many people find nutrition labels very confusing, because there is a lot of product information on them. However, if you know what to look for in advance, it can in fact be quite simple. The things that are most important to pay attention to are total calories, total fat, sodium if you’re watching your blood pressure, and sugar, especially if you’re diabetic. It is also crucial that you look at the serving size. The example shown gives the important information from a Dove Dark Chocolate Bar label. The label says the bar has 146 calories, 9 grams of fat, 1 mg of sodium, and 17 grams of sugar. Here’s where the serving size is important. Those values are just for 1 ounce of the total bar. A whole bar is about 3.5 ounces. So if you were to eat the whole thing, it would be 511 calories, 32 grams of fat, 3.5 mg of sodium, and 60 grams of sugar. Understanding this can help you make better choices about which foods to eat.

16. Reading the Label ←Serving Size ←Calories ←Total Fat ← Sodium
←Total Carbohydrate
(sugar)
Here is the Dove Dark Chocolate label again. Note where each of the values are on the label. The Nutrition Facts on all foods are laid out the same way, so the values will always be in the same place on each food product. The percentages are the amount of each nutrient a certain foods gives you out of the total you should have for the day. They use a 2,000 calorie diet as the basis for the nutrition facts.

17. Chocolate Choices!
Different chocolate products yield different amounts of fat, sugar and calories.
Choose your chocolate carefully!
Chocolate (1 oz)
Calories
Fat (g)
Sugar (g)
Dove Dark Chocolate Bar
144 9 17
Snickers bar
135 7
York Peppermint Pattie
101
1.8 22
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bar
142 8
Hershey’s Dark Chocolate bar
124
Although there are many exciting health benefits associated with chocolate, we have to remember that chocolate is high in fat, calories, and sugar. Comparing different chocolate products by reading the food labels is a good way for us to see what we’re eating. This chart compares 1 ounce of each of these different types of chocolate products. Most of the products do not come in 1 ounces packages, however, so it is important to read the labels carefully. By looking at the chart, you would think the peppermint pattie was one of the best choices. While it is the lowest in calories and fat, it also has very little chocolate in it. Therefore it would have a very small amount of the healthy flavonoids. A better choice would be the Hershey’s Dark Chocolate bar. An ounce of this bar contains 20 less calories than the Dove Dark Chocolate. Check the label of your favorite candy bar the next time you are in the grocery store. Also check to see how many servings the bar contains – sometimes it’s more than one! And remember, certain chocolates have many other ingredients added to them and have less of the healthy flavonoids. As always, the important thing is to eat in moderation and control portion sizes. Just remember to not go overboard with the chocolate and to make it a part of a complete healthy diet!

18. A Healthy Diet ~Balance, variety and moderation~
Chocolate can be part of a healthy diet
But, chocolate is not the answer to our health problems and over-consumption might lead to problems such as excess calories and fat.
Moderation is the key!
Optimal nutrition starts with the overall diet. Chocolate can be part of a healthy diet in small amounts. It shouldn’t be the main course!
Balance, variety and moderation are the keys to a healthy diet! In moderation, chocolate can fit into a healthy diet. However, it alone is not the answer to our health problems and over-consumption might lead to problems, such as excess calories and fat.

19. American Heart Association Environmental Nutrition
References (for lesson plan developed by Gail M. Hanula, EdS, RD, LD, Extension Nutrition Specialist, 7/06. Edited by Isabel Guenther, EFNEP Volunteer, 7/06)
The Heart-Health Benefits of Chocolate Unveiled; Heart and Vascular Institute; Clevland Clinic;
How Chocolate Works; How Stuff Works;
Nutritiondata.com
American Heart Association
Environmental Nutrition
Consumer Health Journal