Last week I attended a fundraiser for Easter Seals. Dessert was a dense dark chocolate flourless cake with chocolate ganache shaped similar to a women’s handbag with an edible gold wash over it. Leaning against it was a white chocolate with gold stars high heel pump.

It was fascinating to look at the detail and of course to taste the chocolate. Even I, lover of all things dark chocolate, could not finish this decadent dessert and didn’t even try…although I gave it a good college try. Ok, so I never met a dark chocolate that I don’t like.

Typically I eat my chocolate with fewer calories from added fat such as the cream in ganache. One of my favorite treats that kids and adults both like is Apple Chocolate Dips.

A simple and fun recipe, you take Granny Smith apple wedges and dip them into melted dark chocolate and roll in chopped pistachio nuts (one of my most favorite nuts and power packed with nutrition).

I’m always excited to hear current evidence-based nutrition news on chocolate’s potential health benefits. A 2011 meta-analysis, which means a systematic review, of seven chocolate studies published in the British Medical Journal specifically looked at the association between chocolate consumption and the risk of developing cardio metabolic disorders (think heart disease and stroke, diabetes and metabolic syndrome).

Interestingly, these studies did not differentiate between dark and milk chocolate. The results indicated that a higher level of chocolate consumption was associated with about a one third reduction in the risk for cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke risk as compared to a lower chocolate intake.

What does this mean to you and me? Eating chocolate in reasonable amounts does not seem to be problematic but may in fact be helpful in reducing overall risk. This study does not prove direct cause and effect… in other words, eat chocolate and no heart disease. It means that when people consume chocolate as part of their diet versus not, the overall risk for cardiovascular diseases seems to go down.

Why does the risk decrease? What’s in the chocolate that has this potential heart-protective effect? Researchers are trying to figure this out. Is it chocolate itself or is it chocolate in combination with a healthy diet and lifestyle? This is what makes association research tough. For example another 2011 study in Chemistry Central Journal found that chocolate is a rich source of antioxidants (polyphenols and flavanols), just like wine, grape juice and most fruit.

Research indicates that the flavanols in cocoa may have heart health benefits that include improved blood flow, reduced blood pressure and lowered production of the lousy or LDL cholesterol. In addition to the flavanols found in cocoa, dark chocolate also contains other nutrients including iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and fiber.

The caveat here is that the nutritional profile can be significantly hindered by the addition of less healthy ingredients such as too much sugar (most all chocolate will have some sugar to counteract the bitter pure cocoa flavor), trans fat or hydrogenated fat, butter oil, coconut or palm oil (both of which contain saturated fat, or even milk fat (which I am seeing added to a lot of chocolate products now).

So it’s up to you to be the label sleuth and look at the Nutrition Facts label and also closely read the ingredient list. The longer the ingredient list, the more likely it is that less-healthy added items will take away from the cocoa’s potential health benefits.

Dark chocolate can be enjoyed without the guilt as long as you don’t forget that chocolate contain fat and calories so you must be prepared to burn off the calories so they don’t end up on your backside.