The British Lancet about Flavanols

According to an editorial published in renowned British medical journal Lancet, chocolate may not offer you health benefits. As we all know, studies in the past have suggested that dark chocolate is good for the heart. These studies state that flavanols which are in chocolate are considered to protect the heart and lower blood pressure.


But the editorial stats that fat, sugar and calories in chocolate trigger illness instead. The journal believes that many manufacturers remove the flavanols while producing chocolate because of its bitter taste.

The online edition of the BBC News quotes Lancet;
'When chocolate manufacturers make confectionery, the natural cocoa solids can be darkened and the flavanols, which are bitter, removed, so even a dark-looking chocolate can have no flavanol,'
'Consumers are also kept in the dark about the flavanol content of chocolate because manufacturers rarely label their products with this information,' the editorial noted.