First the good news:
Dark chocolate has been found to have more flavonoids than any food tested so far, including blueberries, red wine, and black and green teas! In fact, dark chocolate has four times more flavoniods than tea. Dark chocolate has been found to have more flavonoids than any food tested so far, including blueberries, red wine, and black and green teas! In fact, dark chocolate has four times more flavoniods than tea.

Can you guess what hot drink Angel is wishing for?…Hot Cocoa
Studies suggest eating chocolate with at least a 70 percent cocoa content, in moderation, can be beneficial in conjunction with exercise and a healthy diet. If you eat chocolate, only eat DARK chocolate. Dark chocolate has antioxidant properties, which may actually help to protect the body from damaging oxidative stress.

Chocolate is derived from plants, as are fruits and vegetables. Flavoniods are plant pigments, which have antioxidant activity with health promoting benefits: they have anti-allergic, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-viral properties.

Dark chocolate is far better than milk chocolate, as some say adding milk cancels out the chocolate’s antioxidant effects. However, just because chocolate is dark, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s healthy. Are you ready for the not so good news?

Even though chocolate contains flavonols and calcium, both said to have a positive effect on bone density, chocolate also contains oxalate, an inhibitor of calcium absorption, and sugar, linked to calcium excretion. Oxalate is a naturally occurring compound, which in large amounts may inhibit absorption of calcium. They occur in many plants, especially greens like spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, rhubarb, and the cocoa bean.

This is disappointing news for those of us who love chocolate. Some research suggests that regular consumption of chocolate may weaken bone density. This could increase the risk of health problems, especially for women, such as osteoporosis and fracture.

According to a study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who eat chocolate daily have an overall bone density about 3 percent lower than those who consume it less than once a week.

The study found that women, who ate chocolate less than once a week, had significantly stronger bones than those who consumed the treat on a daily basis, with calcium supplementation having little effect on the results. Additional studies are needed to confirm these observations.

In fact, another study from the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, contradicted these findings. They said the body absorbs calcium just as well from chocolate milk as it does from unflavored milk. Because, milk contains much more calcium than oxalate so there’s plenty of free calcium left over. Only 6 milligrams of calcium is tied up, out of the 250 milligrams in a glass of milk.

These studies manage to really confuse the chocolate issue, don’t you think? One study links chocolate to weaker bones, another says the body absorbs calcium with chocolate just fine. There’s a lot were not told. What type of chocolate was eaten in each of the studies? How much did sugar compromise the results concerning weaker bones?

Chocolate Lovers Should Be the Healthiest People on the Planet

Did you know each person eats approximately 11½ pounds of chocolate in a year? Of course, real choco-halics eat more. Although chocolate-lovers often quote the study finding flavonoids in chocolate to be heart-healthy; they often ignore the fact that they may be eating inferior chocolate and sugar, which destroys the very benefit they’re hoping for. They also ignore the part about moderation, a healthy diet, and exercise.

Most cocoa is processed in ways destroying the majority of the beneficial flavanoids. Consumers are generally unaware that standard manufacturing removes as much as half the flavonols. But, you can safely assume all milk and white chocolate do not have these beneficial nutrients.

While the verdict may be out on chocolate, we know sugar is detrimental to health. Chocolate, even if it’s dark, it still contains sugar, and eating sugar compromises your immune system. A good rule of thumb is to eat dark chocolate occasionally and only eat it if you’re healthy.

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Of course, milk contains the highest amount of calcium with 8 ounces of milk containing 300 milligrams. Calcium is a mineral that is most present in your child’s bones. Having a diet with foods which are high in calcium to meet daily requirements is necessary for the development of strong bones. It is also an important way to prevent the development of osteoporosis in adults.

Zach loves his milk!

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The average dietary intake of calcium by children and adolescents is well below the recommended levels of adequate intake.” Too many children no longer drink milk, but substitute soda pop and fruit juices. The easiest way to include calcium in your diet is through milk products.

Toddlers (age 1-3 years) require about 500 mg of calcium each day (about 2 glasses of milk).

Preschool and younger school age children (age 4-8 years) require about 800 mg of calcium each day (about 3 glasses of milk).

Older school age children and teens (age 9-18 years) require about 1300 mg of calcium each day. This higher level of calcium is especially important once they begin puberty (about 4 glasses of milk).

Boning up on plant-based sources of calcium is easy:

For children and adults, who have allergies or who may be lactose intolerant, getting enough calcium may be a concern. The good news is that many non-dairy foods contain calcium. If you don’t drink milk, the be sure to eat plenty of green vegetables, such as broccoli and kale, and fish with soft, edible bones, like salmon and sardines, soybeans and white beans. All are excellent sources of calcium. CLICK HERE for Italian White Beans, a great source of calcium.

Try Rannosaurus always says, “Green food is yummy!”

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You might be surprised to know that in my book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, I recommend whole milk. Even though the standard advice is to drink low-fat. We have forgotten that whole milk is a complete food. Each ingredient plays a part. Milk fat encourages cell metabolism, growth, and fights gastrointestinal infections. The body needs saturated fat to utilize calcium, making kids’ bones strong. Another benefit is that milk fat raises the HDL (good cholesterol).

What’s more, the all-important vitamins A and D are found in the fat. When the fat is removed in skim and low-fat milk, the vitamins A and D are removed along with it. Dairies then add synthetic A and D back into the milk, but vitamins A and D are fat-soluble. They need fat to be absorbed into your body. It only makes nonna-sense that fortified skim and low-fat milk aren’t as beneficial as whole milk!

According to a New York Times article, a federal study, the largest study of its kind, found that low-fat diets don’t prevent heart disease. Instead, scientists are finding that whole milk and natural saturated fats have been given an undeserved bad rap. Many experts say the evidence blaming saturated fats for heart disease is surprisingly weak.

Because the main effect of eating natural saturated fats is to raise high-density lipoproteins, or H.D.L., What’s commonly called the good cholesterol. And with H.D.L., the higher, the better.

In 2005, researchers from Llandough Hospital in Wales, released a study of Welsh men, that found that subjects who drank the most milk over 20 years had a lower risk of heart disease than those who drank the least. The researchers concluded, that “The present perception of milk as harmful in increasing cardiovascular risk should be challenged.”

The Weston Price Foundation goes one step further. The foundation campaigns for real milk. They say, real milk comes from real cows that eat real feed. They add, real milk contains no additives, real milk contains butterfat, and real milk is not pasteurized.

Pasteurization began in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, fevers due to bacteria, and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. We’ve been told that pasteurization is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the Weston Price Foundation says times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks, and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection.

Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, destroys fragile milk proteins and vitamins C, B12 and B6. Furthermore, pasteurization kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens that cause disease, and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, and even cancer.

For sure, there’s a movement toward eating foods as they were intended to be consumed-pure, not processed. You can find clean raw milk from certified healthy cows available commercially in several states. It may be bought directly from the farm in many more.

It seems that health officials have identified the wrong culprit in our health woes. Whole milk doesn’t make you fat. The main dietary causes of obesity is sugar, white flour, and altered fats. For most children, the best source of calcium is milk. Give your kids whole milk; they’ll be healthier for it.

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