choco tips

Shoot for 70% and higher. The percentage refers to the amount of cocoa solids in the product. The more cocoa, the more flavonoids, polyphenol compounds also found in apples, green tea, and red wine (though one study found that chocolate beats them in health power, hands down).

Chocolate's flavonoids can block changes to cholesterol that makes it more likely to stick to your arteries, and the compounds may help protect your DNA from the damage that can cause cancer.

 It's also likely that they improve the health of your blood vessels, increase blood flow, and make you smarter. It even helps put rats in a good mood, and fruit flies live longer, though those studies may or may not be applicable to humans (we think the mood one does work, if you test our brides).

 Notice that we said the more cocoa, the more flavonoids, not the more chocolate you eat, the more flavonoids you get . . . stick to an ounce or so a day to avoid dark chocolate's dark side: calories.

-Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD