It actually furnishes more zinc, potassium and iron than plain milk - and it's no more likely to cause tooth decay than plain milk. The amount of caffeine ingested when people eat chocolate in normal quantities is very small. One ounce of milk chocolate, for example, contains 6 mg. Of caffeine, little more than the amount found in a cup of decaffeinated coffee. Moreover, there have been no reports in the scientific literature of any health problems among children or adults as a result of the caffeine consumed in chocolate.
Cocoa butter affects cholesterol levels.
A new study of cocoas butter, the only fat in plain chocolate, indicates that cocoa butter does not raise levels of cholesterol in the blood, despite its total saturated fat content. This finding, published in the journal Nutrition Research in March 1988 by David Kritchevsky, Ph.D., and co-workers at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, University of Pennsylvania, adds to scientific evidence gathered over the past 30 years that cocoa butter behaves differently from other fats containing relatively high proportions of saturated fatty acids. From the pod of the cacao tree , these beans come chiefly from West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Indies. The beans have been fermented and dried prior to shipment. The nibs are ground in huge store mills.