A Sweet Treat
Filed under: General Health, Nutrition
Many people are self-professed chocoholics. They just can’t get enough. Fortunately for them there is a lot of emerging evidence about the health benefits of dark chocolate (though not milk or white unfortunately). These benefits include: decreased blood pressure, decreased LDL, stimulates endorphin production, is high in fiber, tons of antioxidants, high in magnesium, high in iron and tastes awesome. I wrote an entire blog on the benefits of dark chocolate, so that is not really where I am headed with this today.
Another great food that I have always loved are plums. They are small and delicious and there is nothing like biting into a perfectly sweet plum. Recent research has also shown that one plum has equal or higher antioxidant capacity and phytonutrient content as a handful of blueberries! This is no small feat. It has also been shown that the phytonutrients in plums can disrupt the growth of breast cancer cells without affecting the healthy cells. I wrote an entire blog about the benefits of plums as well, and that is also not where I am headed with this today.
I am actually going to blog about a nice little product that my wife and I found which is a delightful dessert or a perfect addition to home-made trail mix: Plum Sweets. These tasty little treats are made up of dried plums coated in dark (sorta dark, probably like 65%, so not as dark as I would like, but still) chocolate. They are absolutely delicious and provide a ton of antioxidants, with some vitamins, minerals and a little bit of fiber to boot.
While these may not be the healthiest snack on earth, when consumed in moderation or used in a home-made trail mix where they double as the dried fruit and the chocolate, they are great. 1 serving provides about 130 calories, 6 grams of fat, 19 gram of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of protein.
They market it as the ultimate antioxidant snack. They base this on the tremendous ORAC score of both dried plums and dark chocolate. ORAC is a measure of antioxidant capacity of a given food. Dried plums (more commonly known as prunes, but dried plums don’t sound like they are only eaten to keep elderly folk regular) score incredibly high on this scale, as does dark chocolate. So a food combining the two is a food to be enjoyed!
Check them out, they might just become your new favorite dessert!
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Posted on April 20th, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
1 Comment
September 3rd, 2010 at 5:01 am
[...] serving Plum Sweets (~7 [...]