Chocolate Fans Get Good News

The fat in chocolate, although saturated, does not raise blood cholesterol levels and apparently poses no increased health threat to chocolate-loving Americans, researchers said.

“From the standpoint of physiology, it’s not bad for you,” David Kritchevsky, associate director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, said Wednesday of cocoa butter, the fat that gives chocolate its gooey smoothness.

In his study, Kritchevsky added a range of saturated fats to the diets of laboratory rats to determine their effects on blood cholesterol. The results showed that all saturated fats do not act alike.

Cocoa butter, composed primarily of two saturated fatty acids--stearic acid and palmitic acid--”affected the cholesterol levels the least,” he said, saying he believes the stearic acid is responsible for the result.

He said it does not mean chocolate has any particularly beneficial effects.