U.S. Food and Drug Administration has weighed in on whether chocolate is good for the heart. The answer, it turns out, is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no.
The FDA recently responded to a 2018 request from Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, which sought to use health claims on some of its products. After reviewing all available studies, however, the FDA wasn’t able to find conclusive evidence.
“Supportive but inconclusive scientific evidence suggests that consuming at least 200 mg of cocoa flavanols daily, such as provided by high flavanol cocoa powder, or high flavanol semisweet or high flavanol dark chocolate, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” the agency wrote in a letter to the company.
The type of study that would offer the most accurate results – a clinical trial of thousands of people where one group agreed to eat chocolate every day for years and another group agreed to never eat chocolate during that same time period – would be hard to execute, experts say.
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The bottom line? Though cocoa flavanols are healthy, it is unlikely that people will get enough of them in most highly-processed, sweetened chocolate candy, expert say. This doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t indulge a sweet tooth – just be sure to enjoy it in moderation.
