Ahhh the cocoa bean, I do love chocolate. My Swiss neighbor west of Edmonton has a beautiful little square log chocolate shop. It's a busy place this time of year and Peter needs our orders in early or the neighborly advantage won't help and we would be without! Peter Johner buys the best Swiss chocolate and crafts it with love into amazing creations. There is a problem though and it's not the squirrels; it's the calories! Sugar can ruin the benefits of chocolate.

Here's a list of calories associated with different forms of chocolate based on the amount of flavonals you need to get the benfits of chocolate. To get 200 mg of flavanols the calories consumed for each of the following are:

Milk Chocolate 1,580 calories

Chocolate syrup 840 calories

Dark Chocolate (70%) 320 calories

Semi-sweet chips 200 calories

Baking chocolate 70 calories

Cocoa Powder(1 3/4 Tbls) 20 calories

As you can see, the very minimum % is the Dark Chocolate (thank goodness) and even then one has to limit the consumption to about 60 grams otherwise the calories get up there fast. Milk chocolate does not cut it at all as the calorie count is way too high to get the benefits from it. My title up there was just to get your attention, chocolate bars are not good for you!

Another important note is that if the cocoa is processed with alkali, dutch process, or sodium carbonate then there are almost no benficial flavanols even if the chocolate is dark (sorry Starbucks).

The best way is clearly the cocoa powder so it's a great way to make a mocca latte however, I will enjoy my dark chocolate almond bark from Peter. I will do so in place of a cookie or other such flour, butter and sugar based Christmas treat and I will attempt to do so in moderation.

Have a Wonderful Christmas, Dr. Darrell