What Do Dark Chocolate and Red Wine Have In Common?

While these substances are usually regarded as food ‘luxuries’, they can be good for you, taken in the right amount. The common component is resveratrol, a compound originally found in the skins of red grapes, which may be an explanation for the “French Paradox" - the low incidence of heart disease among the French people, in spite of eating a relatively high-fat diet. Now scientists working at the Hershey Institute have determined the resveratrol content of various chocolate preparations – in fact, of 19 top-selling cocoa-containing and chocolate products from the US market. The findings are published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Resveratrol levles were highest in cocoa powders, followed by unsweetened baking chocolates, semisweet chocolate baking chips, dark chocolates, milk chocolates, and chocolate syrups, in that order. How do these levels stack up against those in red wine? On an equal weight basis, cocoa powder had about half the resveratrol seen in redwine. On a per serving basis, the cocoa and chocolate products had less than red wine, but more than roasted peanuts, another food product claiming health benefits. (Peanut butter, however, scored fairly high.)

I guess the Hershey Institute, the Peanut Institute, and the Wine Spectator can battle it out. But here’s a thought (derived from a Quackery-Related Topical piece): no matter what the resveratrol content of red wine, cocoa/chocolate, and peanuts, the amount required to have a demonstrable health benenfit is so high that the particular ‘food’ must be taken in near-toxic amounts. Just settle for a glass or two of red wine a day.