Bobo Bonobo® > wrote:
>Cocoa butter, which is highly saturated, has been shown to have a good
>effect on lipoproteins. citation below:
>
> Dark chocolate consumption increases HDL cholesterol concentration
>and chocolate fatty acids may inhibit lipid peroxidation in healthy
>humans.
> Mursu J, Voutilainen S, Nurmi T, Rissanen TH, Virtanen JK,
>Kaikkonen J, Nyyssönen K, Salonen JT.
> Free Radic Biol Med. 2004 Nov 1;37(9):1351-9

Cocoa butter is white chocolate. Dark chocolate minimizes
cocoa butter and maximizes nonfat cocoa solids.

>Also, "Stearic acid, found in cocoa butter...

And soap...

>has a neutral effect on
>the plasma lipid profile." citation below:

Hully gee! A /neutral effect/!

>Effects of antioxidants and fatty acids on low-density-lipoprotein
>oxidation
>CJ Fuller and I Jialal
>American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 60, 1010S-1013S
>
>Stearic acid is a fully saturated fatty acid.
>The short chain saturated fats are also fine.
>All trans fats are very bad, but saturated fats are far more
>complicated than you described.

The evidence seems to be that saturated fats were sullied
by association with trans fats. As trans fats come from
artificially saturating unsaturated fats, and the FDA for
a long time didn't require labelling foods with trans-fat
content.

--Blair