“Sleeper” is the only Woody Allen movie that to my taste qualifies as “great,” and some recent news brings an early scene from that film to mind. After Allen’s character has been revived from cryogenic slumber, two scientists are discussing what they regard as unusual requests for his morning meal:
“Yes, this morning for breakfast he requested something called wheat germ, organic honey and tiger’s milk (laughter).”
“Oh, yes. Those were the charmed substances that some years ago were felt to contain life-preserving properties.”
“You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or hot fudge?”
“Those were thought to be unhealthy, precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.”
“Incredible.”
The recent news, of course, is that chocolate has “life-preserving” properties that only a few years ago would have induced laughter from the scientific and medical community. A Swedish study apparently has “good news” for chocoholic women; since they are the highest chocolate consumption group, they are more likely to “benefit” than men who (apparently established by the usual female myths rather than actual fact), ate less chocolate. Consuming a 1.6 ounce Hershey’s Bar or two every day can reduce the risk of stroke by 14 percent, believed to be due to chocolate’s assumed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This follows up a British Medical Journal report that claims that dark chocolate can reduce blood pressure. The caveat to the BMJ findings is that noticeable blood pressure improvement was seen only in people who already had hypertension issues. Also, chocolate that is rich in flavanol, an organic compound in plants and lauded for numerous medicinal benefits, has little actual effect on blood pressure.
Other researchers still caution that the unhealthy side effects of high-fat content milk chocolate may still outweigh its “benefits”—particularly candy bars whose only chocolate content is the covering of high-fat fillings. The milk in milk chocolate tends to inhibit the metabolizing of its medicinal properties, and the effectiveness of dark chocolate is reduced when the elements that contribute to its bitter taste are removed; unsweetened baking chocolate is likely the most “healthy” version. It would appear, unfortunately, that science still has a lot catching-up to do before the health food militant is proven wrong.
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