Let’s face it. We’re all going to eat chocolate. But you don’t have to feel
guilty! Chocolate is actually good for you…it’s all the things added to it
that are the problem. Here’s how you can choose delicious healthy
chocolates to enjoy anytime.

Health Benefits

The gift of chocolate to a beloved as a token of love is more than just
tradition. Naturally-occurring compounds in chocolate produce that mild
euphoria of being in love and contribute to enjoyable interpersonal
relations by elevating mood and enhancing sensory perception.

Beyond good feelings, chocolate benefits the body in many ways. In
moderation, chocolate can contribute to heart health, help you live
longer, suppress a chronic cough, and add needed magnesium to your
diet. Chocolate even contains a high level of chromium, which can help
control blood sugar.

Health Problems

While chocolate itself is fine to eat, there are some substances present
in chocolate products that you should watch out for.

Most chocolate products contain tremendous amounts of refined white
sugar, which is harmful to health in many ways.

Chocolate may also contain pesticides. The EPA allows various levels of
pesticide residue to be present in cocoa powder, and the FDA Total Diet
Study found them in many chocolate products.

Many chocolates also contain the toxic metals cadminum and lead.
“Significant levels” of these metals were found in 68% of the common
chocolate products tested. There is no safe level for lead, and it is
particularly harmful to children.

Healthy Chocolate Choices

Here are some guidelines for choosing the healthiest chocolates.

1. Choose chocolates with the least amount of refined white sugar or other sweetener. Dark “bittersweet” chocolates with a high percentage
of cocoa solids (usually the label will state the exact percentage) have
less sugar than semisweet or milk chocolate and also have the greatest
health benefits. Keep in mind that flavor additions, such as dried fruits
and candied ginger may also add sugar to the chocolate.

2. Choose chocolates sweetened with evaporated cane juice or barley malt. If the evaporated cane juice used is the unprocessed whole juice of the cane, it acts in the body like a whole food and doesn’t give a
sugar rush. Barley malt is also a slow-release sweetener, noted on the
label as “grain-sweetened.”

3. Choose organic chocolates. Certified organic chocolate ensures there
are no harmful pesticide residues.

4. Make your own chocolates. It’s easy to make many chocolate delights
yourself, with the exact ingredients you want. Start with unsweetened
cocoa powder or baking chocolate and be creative!

5. Choose quality over quantity. If you are going to eat chocolate, eat
really good chocolate. Then, for maximum enjoyment, give the taste of
the chocolate your full attention, eat it at a time when you are not
famished or overly full, and allow the chocolate to melt in your mouth to
make the experience last.

So go ahead and enjoy chocolate, in moderation, as part of an
otherwise healthy diet,

Learn more about healthy chocolate at
http://www.debraslist.com/food/aboutchocolate.html

Hailed as “The Queen of Green” by the New York Times,
Debra Lynn Dadd has been a leading consumer advocate for
products and lifestyle choices that are better for health and the
environment since 1982. Visit her website at
http://www.dld123.com to sign up for her free email newsletters
and to browse 100s of links to 1000s of nontoxic, natural and
earthwise products.

Will a chocolate bar a day keep heart attacks away?

The candy industry keeps trying to convince us that chocolate is a health food by sponsoring and publicizing studies. One of the latest, in the medical journal Hypertension (July, 2005), shows that eating dark chocolate lowers high blood pressure. Jeffrey B. Blumberg, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University, gave 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate per day for 15 days to 20 people with high blood pressure. Their systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 11mm.

Researchers at the University of California at Davis reviewed a number of recent studies on chocolate and its health benefits (The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2003.) They found that flavan-3-ols, the main flavonoids found in cocoa, are associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. The article goes on to say that cocoa contains the same nutrients found in other plant foods, including minerals and specific antioxidants that help ward off diseases such as heart disease. In addition, oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat also found in olive oil, makes up one-third of the fat in chocolate and has been shown to be beneficial for heart health.

Europeans living in the 17th century also believed in chocolate’s healing powers. They said it “comforted the liver, aided in digestion and made one happy and strong.” Chocolate was used for stimulating the kidneys and treating anemia, tuberculosis, fever and gout; and was reported to strengthen the heart and relieve heart pain.

Cocoa beans are loaded with flavonoids, the antioxidants found in all fruits, vegetables whole grains, beans and other seeds, and antioxidants do lower blood pressure. However, dark chocolate by itself is bitter, so candy makers add lots of sugar and fat to make it taste good. Sugar raises blood sugar to damage cells in diabetics, and one third of Americans are or will become diabetic. Fat is a dense source of calories that makes fat people fatter. So the old adage: “If it tastes good, it must be bad.” still holds for most of us. Chocolate tastes good because of the added sugar and fat.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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Healthy eaters know that easily the best way to please someone dear to you is to make him a Romantic Dinner. We’ve gone one better and prepared a special collection of Romantic Dinners.

See pictures of delicious recipes and other details at:

Romantic Recipes They Love

The Northern Mexican diet is considered by many to be one of the three healthiest diets in the world. Beans, generally pintos, which by the way are the healthiest of all beans, are paired in many dishes with corn, especially corn tortillas. This amazingly simple diet is quite sustainable and with the addition of chiles in salsa or fresh or pickled chiles such as jalapenos—the diet is quite tasty.

The benefit you receive from eating chiles in healthy Mexican recipes coupled with a balanced diet and a moderate amount of exercise is that weight loss or at the least maintenance is assured. You will not be as hungry when you eat spicy and will also eat less.

Chiles also act to reduce stress, reduce facial wrinkles, increase heart health, assist with digestion and circulation and have been known to cure endless amounts of physical ailments. Cooking healthy Mexican recipes makes it easy to begin the chile-a-day habit. You can learn lots of healthy Mexican recipes during Jane Butel’s weekend or weeklong cooking schools or join “Cooking with Jane”, Jane Butel’s cooking club. For additional information, join the enewsletter mailing list for Butel’s Bytes.

To select chiles for cooking, if you are searching for milder chiles, always select ones that have broad shoulders and blunt tips—conversely, select chiles with pointed tips and narrow shoulders for hotter dishes. This is important because you can have up to 35 different piquancies on one plant at a time.

Mexican foods frequently contain chiles, though not as spicy as north of the border New Mexican or even Tex-Mex cooking. In Mexican cooking they use less chiles or marinate them in lime juice if there is a concern they will be too hot. The exception is in the Yucatan where the Mayans have long used the really hot habenero chiles.

In Mexico, the ubiquitous sour cream and lots of cheese are not found—those are basically commercialized preparations of fast food American Mexican restaurants.

An example of a healthy Mexican recipe for sauce that is used from morning to night, is the Pipian sauce, a delightful, nut like tasting sauce that is really yummy on eggs, tacos, as a dipping sauce, over vegetables and meats. It is from Oaxaca and once made keeps well in the refrigerator and can be frozen if desired.

Here’s the recipe—

Pipian Sauce

Yield: 4 1/2 cups (approximately)

1 teaspoon ground chipotles 1 cup green pumpkin seeds or pipian 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 cup sliced scallions, including the greens 1/2 cup cooked or canned tomatillos, drained and chopped 2 cups chicken broth

1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot skillet until they start to brown, taking care not to let them burn.

2. Combine the chile, toasted seeds, cilantro, scallions, and tomatillos in a blender along with 2 cups of chicken broth and puree until smooth. Keeps well in the refrigerator for two weeks or frozen in a sealed container.

Jane Butel, the first to write about Southwestern cooking, has published 19 cookbooks, several being best sellers. She operates a full-participation weekend and week-long vacation cooking school, an on-line school, a cooking club, a monthly ezine, a mail-order spice, cookbook, Southwestern product business and conducts culinary tours and team-building classes. For more information on this article go to http://www.janebutelcooking.com/Public/Articles/index.cfm? , 1-800-473-8226.

Article Source: ArticleSpan

Easily the best way to please someone dear to you is to make him a Romantic Dinner. We’ve gone one better and prepared a special collection of Romantic Dinners.

See pictures of recipes, along with user comments and more details at

Recipes They Love

When it comes to our heart health it’s important that we follow a heart health diet, that we get enough exercise and that we learn to control our response to negative stress in our lives.

It’s true that heredity plays an important role in our susceptibility to heart health problems, but there are many aspects of our diet and lifestyle we can control, starting with a heart healthy recipe that you will enjoy.

Many studies have demonstrated the benefit of extra virgin olive oil, vegetables and garlic to overall health and wellness, yet it can be tough to combine these into something that is simple to eat, so here is a tasty pesto heart healthy recipe that will not only do wonders for your overall wellness but will taste great too.

I have to admit straight up that I have often had trouble digesting pesto recipes that I get in Italian restaurants, I’m not quite sure why, but my feeling is that there is too much oil or the garlic is perhaps too heavy.

That’s the great part about making your own heart healthy recipes such as this pesto is that you can alter the amount of ingrediants to suit your preference.

There are 2 major ingredients in pesto that make it especially healthy for the heart.

Several studies have demonstrated the benefit of quality olive oil to heart health.  By swapping other fats or carbohydrates for unsaturated fats such as olive oil you can have a positive impact on both lowering blood pressure and on lowering cholesterol.  The impact on lowering blood pressure is a relatively recent finding by scientists and just one more added benefit of a heart healthy recipe that includes olive oil.

Another great ingredient in pesto that benefits the heart is garlic.  Once again, several studies have demonstrated a beneficial impact on heart health with garlic including the ability to control and even remove existing plaque build-ups in your arteries.  Even more important is that recent findings suggest that pure garlic (as opposed to supplements) is better for your system, pesto heart healthy recipes certainly fill that requirement.

In addition, the fact that this heart healthy recipe is low in salt and includes the tasty and healthy basil herb, also makes it a superb food for our heart.

HEART HEALTHY RECIPE - BEST PESTO

To make pesto you will need a food processor to combine and even liquify the ingredients turning them into a marriage of flavors that is just simply incredible.

You will need…

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (I’ve even done 1/4 cup and had good success)

2 peeled garlic cloves (move to 1 if you not garlic crazy)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

2 Cups of fresh Basil leaves (if you find the Basil overpowering, substitute some parsley)

Fresh ground pepper

Combine everything together except the cheese into your food processor and puree until smooth - I like it when it’s combined into a thick paste.  Finally, stir in the cheese and store it for at least a day in your refrigerator - it will keep for days and the taste will actually get better.

You can east this heart healthy recipe with thin toasts such as Melba toast or oven roasted toast that you make in your own oven.  You can also serve it with meats or bump up the flavor of many other recipes. Of course, this pesto recipe will also be great with any pasta.  Just remember, keep it cool until you pour it over your pasta.

There you have it, a heart healthy recipe that is quick and simple to make, lasts for days, is big on flavor and inexpensive to make over and over again.

Healthy, Low Fat and Quick Recipes That Will Make Your Tastebuds Water With
Anticipation - You Really Can Experience Healthy Eating Without Giving Up
Taste Or Time.  Visit http://www.rapid-weight-loss.com/diet-recipe.html

See pictures of recipes, along with user comments and more details at

Heart Healthy Recipes