National Milk Chocolate Day

According to The Bizarre American Holidays page today is National Milk Chocolate Day. Now, I know we've all heard that chocolate has many health benefits and that by eating it we will be protected from heart disease and all sorts of other things. I even had someone tell me that if you eat chocolate you won't gain weight (some people really do believe everything on the internet). While I agree that eating chocolate can help to relieve stress, I think that might be a learned thing, but who really knows. The problem I see is that when chocolate is said to be a health food, few will look at the small print. Instead, they use it as an excuse to eat more chocolate.

I am so in love with chocolate that its not funny, but the truth is that processed chocolate with all the added sugar and who knows what else is not anymore healthy than a bowl of ice cream or a bag of chips. Its really is still junk food. Pure cocoa is where the health benefits can be found. The really good dark chocolate that only has cocoa butter is the stuff that has health benefits. (FYI: plain, unprocessed cocoa butter is great for the skin too) However, this is not a case of more is better. Studies have shown that small amounts of pure dark chocolate (like 1 oz a couple times a week) is good for you. Large amounts of dark chocolate have large amounts of fat and should not be consumed.

So remember, there are things that all of us like that are good for you (red wine anyone), but it is usually in its simplest, unprocessed form and in small amounts.