Merlin Dorfman wrote:
>
> I have been reading that dark chocolate is a healthy food
> because it has lots of flavinoids and antioxidants, but
> (in contrast to milk chocolate) not much of the downside of
> dairy products. However looking at the labels of various
> dark chocolates, the saturated fat content is huge!
> How can that be healthy?

Quoting from:
http://www.candyusa.org/Media/Nutrit...holesterol.asp

Research Shows "Chocolate Does Not Raise Cholesterol:
" Stearic Acid Called "A Unique Saturated Fat"

Milk Chocolate in the diet, even when consumed
on a daily basis over a long period of
time, does not raise blood cholesterol levels
in healthy young men, according to the
Southwestern University Medical Center in Dallas.

"This finding is exciting because it confirms past
studies that stearic acid, the predominant
saturated fat in milk chocolate, is a unique
saturated fatty acid," said Dr. Penny
Kris-Etherton of The Pennsylvania State
University (PSU), principle researcher of three
studies on the subject. "We knew that stearic
acid is different from other saturated fats,
because it has a neutral effect on blood
cholesterol levels. Now we've taken this research
a step further and applied it to a popular food
product, chocolate." Cocoa butter, a large
component of chocolate, is rich in stearic acid.

Kris-Etherton's study on 15 young men at
PSU is the first to examine the relationship
between high levels of milk chocolate
consumption and blood cholesterol levels. "All of
the participants in the study ate diets very high
in different forms of saturated fat," said
Kris-Etherton. "Only those who consumed
saturated fat in the form of milk chocolate did
not see a significant increase in the blood
cholesterol level."

In the PSU study, participants consumed
varied combinations of saturated fatty acids, in
higher quantities (20 percent of total calories)
than they normally eat. Those whose
saturated fats came from the stearic acid
in milk chocolate were the only group to show a
neutral effect on the blood cholesterol level.

"Not surprisingly, those students who consume
butter alone as a source of saturated fat
had an increase in their cholesterol levels,"
said Kris-Etherton. "But we were interested
and pleased to see that consuming milk
chocolate, which contains cocoa butter along with
a small amount of milk fat, did not raise the
blood cholesterol."

Other research supports Kris-Etherton's
findings. According to Dr. Scott Grundy, Ph.D.,
Director of the Center for Human Nutrition
at the University of Texas, "We used to think
that all kinds of saturated fat raised the
cholesterol level, but now we know that there
are several types of saturated fats, and they
don't all act the same. Our research has shown
that stearic acid simply doesn't increase the
cholesterol level in blood the same way that
other types of saturated fats do."

Nutritionists recommend that milk chocolate
be eaten in moderation, but say that there
is no reason that it cannot be included in
a diet to control blood cholesterol. "There
are no good foods and no bad foods, but rather
there are good diets and bad diets," said
Kris-Etherton. "When consumers pick up
a milk chocolate bar and see on the nutrition
label that it contains saturated fat, they need
to remember that not all saturated fats are
the same."