Chocolate and cholesterol: you have to pay attention to the percentages

Do chocolate and cholesterol get along or are they a dangerous pairing? It depends on the cocoa percentages.

Those who fight against cholesterol on a daily basis must pay particular attention to their diet. A healthy diet, low in fat and rich in fresh and seasonal products, allows you to keep LDL levels in the blood under control. Staying on the subject, are chocolate and cholesterol a good or bad combination? There is the green light, but under certain conditions.

Chocolate and cholesterol: a combination promoted or rejected?

Are chocolate and cholesterol a good or bad combination ? Before giving an answer to this question, it should be emphasized that people who fight against high cholesterol must pay close attention to the foods they put on the table, especially when it comes to foods rich in fat. Having made this brief but necessary premise, let's get to the point: dark chocolate and cholesterol are great allies. The first, as various studies have shown, allows you to lower the levels of LDL in the blood.

Of course, that doesn't mean you can abuse it. A person fighting against cholesterol should consume a maximum of 30 grams of dark chocolate per day. If you need to keep calories under control, it should be consumed every other day. Dark chocolate , with a cocoa percentage higher than 70%, is considered healthy. The same cannot be said of our white or milk colleagues, since they contain other ingredients that reduce the beneficial properties of cocoa.

Cocoa and cholesterol: pay attention to the percentages

Dark chocolate is considered dark when it contains a minimum percentage of cocoa of 43% and cocoa butter of at least 28%, with dry substance (cocoa paste and cocoa) ranging between 55% and 70%. On the other hand, it is extra dark when the cocoa paste is at least 75%. Finally, it is extra bitter when the percentage is between 85% and 90%.

Having clarified this, does hot chocolate help fight cholesterol? Depends. The preparations are almost always to be avoided because they contain other ingredients in addition to cocoa. If you wish, however, you can prepare it at home with a little bitter cocoa or dark chocolate and vegetable milk. Of course, adding sugar is forbidden, but a teaspoon of honey is allowed.