There has been an upswing in interest in the health benefits of eating dark chocolate : a small study demonstrated a decrease in blood pressure and an increase in insulin sensitivity in 15 healthy people.
Abstract here.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 2005, Davide Grassi, Cristina Lippi, Stefano Necozione, Giovambattista Desideri and Claudio Ferri, Department of Internal Medicine and Public Health, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
The control was white chocolate : all the same ingredients as the dark chocolate except for polyphenols. Does anyone have a ready reckoner for deriving polyphenol volume from cocoa butter content ? Cocoa butter content is the number cited by the better chocolate manufacturers on their packaging - the higher the number, the darker the chocolate. Below 70% and the chocolate really isn't "dark" chocolate. Above 85%, and the chocolate becomes harder to eat - dry bitter flavors tend to become more dominant.
A newspaper article titled Cocoa Loco drew my attention to the research. It misspells the research institution as "University of L'Aguila" : a Google search on that term and chocolate brings up 16 other references to the same misspelling.