Miami Women-Only Fitness Bootcamp

but dark chocolate is NOT good for you.

Every once in a while, a study surfaces promoting the health benefits of a particular food, such as in 2014 – a study showed that consuming dark chocolate improved memory in older people and decreased their risk of stroke and heart attacks.  Of course, the press was all over this.

However, what they didn’t bother to mention was that to get the purported health benefits, a person would need to consume 7 chocolate bars on a daily basis.  More so, they failed to report that the study was funded by none other than Mars, a candy conglomerate with a vested interest in promoting chocolate sales.

It’s true that cocoa beans are full of beneficial antioxidants.  And if you’ve ever consumed pure cocoa, you know that these beans are extremely bitter due to a class of antioxidants called phenols.  However, the processing of cocoa beans into chocolate bars removes much of the antioxidants, and adds sugars and saturated fats. The end result is CANDY, not health food.

There is some good news…  If you’re serious about getting the heart health benefits, and want that chocolate, reach for at least 70 percent cacao or higher, which is fairly bitter without the added fat and sugar.

As for glitzy headlines in the media, try to ignore them as well – they will only confuse and irritate you. The secret to healthy eating is simple – a wide variety of unprocessed foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and just a bit of sugary salty fatty snacks.

********************************************

This Saturday, Dec 8, we are meeting at FIU for another great sweat session!

Meet us in our favorite parking garage at 6:59am, if you’re serious about getting fit while having fun!

This entry was posted on December 6, 2018 at 5:11 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.