Eating chocolate may be healthy, but it seems that the only kind that will benefit your heart, is if it?ˉs the dark kind, a new study has found

The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Joe Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton.

The researchers conducted a series of four experiments. They first calculated the antioxidant content of various chocolate products, including dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate milk made with two different types of chocolate syrup and dry hot cocoa mixes.

They found that though dark chocolate is so healthy that it can help reduce the risk of heart disease, white chocolate, on the other hand, provides very little health benefits.

Coffee, tea and chocolate all contain polyphenolic compounds that neutralize the damaging effects of oxygen on cells by playing a protective role against free radicals, which are molecules with unpaired electrons, and which have been linked to diseases from cancer to bad cholesterol.

The researchers noted that the darkest chocolates bind with LDL?ˉs ?a i.e. the bad cholesterol ?a and prevent oxidation, which is linked to heart disease.

In a series of blood cholesterol tests performed on Syrian golden hamsters before and after the rodents were fed "brownies" made with rodent chow, Hershey?ˉs cocoa powder, water and coconut oil, the team found that elevated cholesterol levels decreased by 36 percent.

"One cup of black tea is equivalent to one dark chocolate bar for antioxidant content," Discovery News quoted lead author Joe Vinson, as saying.

"What's interesting in this new study is that the most benefit was seen in the group that consumed the dark chocolate," said Catherine Neto, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

The study is published in a recent Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (ANI)

最近一项研究发现，吃巧克力可能身体健康有利，但这仅仅指吃黑巧克力，黑巧克力对心脏有益。

这一研究是由Scranton大学化学教授Joe Vinson的研究小组开展的。

研究人员进行了四组样本实验。他们首先计算出了各种巧克力制品中抗氧化物的含量，包括黑巧克力、牛奶巧克力、用两种不同的巧克力糖浆制成的巧克力奶和可可酪。

他们发现食用黑巧克力有助于降低心脏疾病的得病率，但白巧克力似乎没有这种作用。

咖啡、茶和巧克力都含有聚酚类物质，这种物质能通过抗自由基的方式，减少细胞被氧化的危害作用，这种物质是带有自由电子的分子，它可以阻止“坏”胆固醇和癌症的发生。

研究人员指出，黑巧克力可与“坏”胆固醇LDL结合，阻止其氧化，从而降低心脏疾病的发生。

用叙利亚金色大鼠做实验，对喂食可可粉、水和椰子油前后的鼠分别进行血液中胆固醇含量检测，发现胆固醇含量降低约36％。

《发现》杂志引用作者Joe Vinson的原话作标题：“一杯红茶的抗氧化物的含量和一块黑巧克力的相当。”

位于Dartmouth的曼彻斯特大学化学和生物化学副教授Catherine Neto说：“很有意思的是吃黑巧克力的人在这项研究中得到的好处最多。”

这项研究结果已经发表在近期的农业和食物化学杂志上。