Eating chocolate can either be a health trick or just a treat, according to a recent study that found dark chocolate is so healthy it may reduce the risk of heart disease, but white chocolate provides very little health benefits.

The study, published in a recent Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, also determined that chocolate is the third highest antioxidant source for consumers, just behind coffee and tea.Coffee, tea and chocolate all contain polyphenolic compounds that counteract the damaging effects of oxygen on cells by protecting against free radicals,
which are molecules with unpaired electrons that have been linked to everything from cancer to bad cholesterol.

"One cup of black tea is equivalent to one dark chocolate bar for antioxidant content," lead author Joe Vinson told Discovery News.

This year a research conducted by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environme in  Amsterdam studied how cocoa affected the mortality of 1,000 elderly Dutch male subjects. It found the highest cocoa consumers  had a 50 percent decreased risk for cardiovascular mortality than men who consumed less chocolate."What's interesting in this new study is that the most benefit was seen in the group that consumed the dark chocolate," said Catherine Neto, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who also studies the link between food and health.

It is also proven fact that white chocolate has no benefits since it contains almost no cocoa and sometimes it can be difficult locating healthier chocolate among
milk chocolate. But, she says, it's worth the effort.

"It's hard to find bags of Halloween candy in the stores that contain dark chocolate," she said, "but health-conscious consumers should look for them."

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