Soccer Dad

For my health

There was a brilliant Hershey's ad in the paper. The copy was something like this:

Hershey's Special Dark has more antioxidants than red wine.
Eat your chocolate.
Drink you wine.
Life is good.

All over the Hershey's website there's information about the anti-oxidant properties of chocolate; especially the bittersweet varieties.

I figured this is too good to be true. Chocolate good for me?

Well naturally there are naysayers. You know the folks at the Center of Science in the Public Interest. They have a section of "expolding myths about chocolate." It contains such useful information as

“The industry would have us believe that chocolate candy is right up there with fruits and vegetables,” said Liebman. “But chocolate is not a health food. If people are eating chocolate candy for their health rather than for pleasure, they’re fooling themselves. Considering that candy consumption has grown 50 percent since 1980, chocolate is certainly contributing to obesity.

Please, the chocolate industry does nothing of the sort. It promotes chocolate because it tastes good. (Are there any reference to antioxidants in the Kit Kat song?)

That's what I love about CSPI: their people who tell us things that are blindingly obvious and present them as if their some sort great revelation and that they are protecting us from corporate monsters. Then the 11 o'clock news takes the press release and treats it like breaking news.

However it appears that there are studies that chocolate is richer in anti-oxidants than other foods.

"Although we know that antioxidants are important for good health, nobody knows the exact daily amount required per person," says Chang Yong Lee, Ph.D., head of the study and a professor of food chemistry in Cornell's Department of Food Science and Technology, located in Geneva, N.Y. "Nevertheless, a cup or two of hot cocoa every once in a while can provide a delicious, warm and healthy way to obtain more antioxidants."

Even the Hershey's website has a section devoted to nutrition and the claims of the health benefits of chocolate are not as dramatic as the ones at the CPSI website.

However if you see a middle aged drunk man with brown stains on his shirt staggering along the street. That would be imbibing in wine and chocolate to boost my antioxidents.

Blogdigger tags: Hershey's, Chocolate, Center of Science in the Public Interest, anti-oxidants.