Getting to Healthy

A new study says that one of our favorite goodies is actually OK to eat – in moderation!

It seems that every new health study that comes out gives us contradictory information. One of the latest studies tells us that chocolate in moderation can be good for our heart health.
What?

• Does this mean that we can finally pour the chocolate syrup on our ice cream sundae?
• Can we eat an entire chocolate bar at the movies without worries?
• That heavily frosted four-level chocolate cake is good for us?

The answers to all the questions, is, unfortunately, a resounding No!
The chocolate-heart study (click here to read it) posted by the American Heart Association, is clear that only a moderate amount of chocolate is OK.

As an official from the American Heart Association warns:

“Those tempted to use these data as their rationale for eating large amounts of chocolate or engaging in more frequent chocolate consumption are not interpreting this study appropriately,” said Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., immediate past chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee and professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “This is not an ‘eat all you want’ take-home message, rather it’s that eating a little dark chocolate can be healthful, as long as other adverse behaviors do not occur, such as weight gain or excessive intake of non-nutrient dense ‘empty’ calories.”

Here are Basic Facts about Your Heart:

The normal human heart is a strong, muscular pump a little larger than a fist. Each day an average heart “beats” (expands and contracts) 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.
The heart has four chambers through which blood is pumped. The upper two are the right and left atria. The lower two are the right and left ventricles. Four valves open and close to let blood flow in only one direction when the heart beats.

Click here to read about the warning signs of a heart attacks, courtesy of the American Heart Association.