Dark chocolate

When the media reports that something is good for you that was previously thought not to be good for you, like alcohol, people who use, or abuse, that substance tend to get a little excited. Much has been written about the antioxidant power of red wine, for instance. But the amount of flavenol or reservatrol, or whatever the substance in the skin of a grape is called that would deliver the high dose of antioxidants needed to boost peoples' health is equivalent, I heard, to 90 bottles of wine. A day.

There are, of course, other sources of antioxidant riches. Broccoli apparently has some. But broccoli is not that exciting to eat. Yogurt even has some stomach-balancing property in it. But yogurt, too, is nothing special.

Chocolate, now, has some potential. "Dark" chocolate, as opposed to milk chocolate, also been shown to have some antioxidant properties. When I heard this a year or two ago, I bought some dark chocolate M and Ms. And ate the whole bag - in, I think, two nights.

Over the last three weeks or so, we've (I've) bought some dark chocolate candy bars. Far and away, Whole Foods swiss dark chocolate is the best. Newman's, not so good. Hershey's dark chocolate, decent. Whole Foods, at $1.99 a pop, is outstanding.

The trick is to make it last more than one night.