MILK KILLS CHOCOLATE'S BENEFITS

By now just about everybody's seen the "Chocolate is good for you" story, based on a small but intriguing study. Of course the media in general are treating the phrase at face value, implying that the garbage Americans call chocolate is included in this. But some stories specifically explain otherwise: "European researchers say eating milk chocolate, which is most commonly used in candy bars, does not raise antioxidant levels in the bloodstream. They found the same discouraging result among patients who drank milk while eating dark chocolate. The results suggest that milk and other dairy products somehow discourage the body's ability to absorb the protective compounds in chocolate. Only subjects who ate dark chocolate showed a temporary increase in their antioxidant levels." And New Scientist goes further, reporting that the researchers "speculate that milk may also have the same effect on other antioxidant-rich foods, including fruit and green vegetables."