Chocolate to Live For!

Works for me. Earlier in my life I had a tendency toward depression. It seems to run in my family, so I wouldn't be surprised to find out I have an SNP (a DNA variation) on one of my genes that causes my serotonin levels to be chronically low. A little dark chocolate in small amounts often helps lift me out of those blue moments. When I walk into my favorite store on Union Street in San Francisco that sells high-quality chocolates from around the world, I feel like, well, a kid in a candy store.

Dark chocolate has the highest content of beneficial flavonols—the bitterer the better—whereas milk chocolate and white chocolate have very little. Most chocolate is high in saturated fat and sugar, so too much chocolate—dark or otherwise—is unwise.

Even a small amount of dark chocolate can be exquisitely satisfying if you meditate on it. Meditation is the practice of giving something your full attention and awareness. When I eat a truffle, for example, I focus fully on it and involve as many of my senses as possible. I notice the color and shape with my eyes, I smell it with my nose, I feel the texture with my fingers and when it first enters my mouth. Before I close my mouth and bite into it, I first close my eyes so I can focus fully on the experience.

After the first rush of flavor and sensation, I allow the chocolate to melt in my mouth, and I notice the different flavors and sensations as the texture and temperature of the chocolate begins to change, and how these change as it touches different parts of my hard palate, soft palate and throat. It's a little like listening to a great musical performance and noticing the subtle variations in tone, pitch and volume, along with infinitely varying changes in harmonics and overtones.

It can sometimes take several minutes for me to eat a piece of really good chocolate. The experience can be profoundly sensual and gratifying, yet the amount of fat, sugar and calories is relatively small. The first bite is usually the best; the last bite is the next best—so if you just have a small amount, then you have maximum pleasure with minimum calories. Sometimes I eat more than one piece of chocolate at a time, but most of the time one will do.

For people who have extensive coronary heart disease and are trying to reverse it, even this may be unwise. But for most people, having small indulgences like this brings so much pleasure that it makes it easier to eat more healthfully the rest of the time without feeling deprived or restricted.