Q. I am a chocolate lover and I keep turning to it for comfort. I try to convince myself that chocolate is a new “super-food” because I keep hearing that it's good for the heart. Can this be true? If so, how much and which chocolate is best?

As you will know, chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which naturally contain good amounts of the antioxidant super-nutrients known as flavonoids. Recent research carried out on flavonoid-rich chocolate and cocoa revealed them to have anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory effects, which in theory could help to lower the risk of heart disease.

Flavonoids also seem to stimulate our bodies to make more nitric oxide, which helps to widen and relax blood vessels, and in turn may help to lower blood pressure. Not only this, but it is possible that flavonoids also help to stop bad cholesterol from oxidising, which in practice could make it less likely for arteries to fur up.

In theory, then, eating flavonoid-rich chocolate could be good for you, although there are quite a few “buts”, the first of which involves how many flavonoids you actually get in your favourite bar of chocolate, and the second how much you need to eat to get any potential benefits.

According to scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, the percentage of cocoa listed on a label is not a dependable indicator of flavonoid content. A bar that is, for example, 65 per cent cocoa may not be better than one that is 55 per cent.

This is because a lot depends on the type of cocoa beans used and how they have been processed. The higher the temperature at which the beans are roasted and the longer they are fermented, the fewer heart-healthy flavonoids survive, and this is not mentioned on the pack. Even if flavonoid content is given, scientists claim that results can vary from lab to lab.

That said, the bottom line is that you are likely to get more flavonoids in a dark chocolate that lists cocoa beans, cacao, chocolate liquor or cocoa mass on its ingredient list. Milk chocolate tends to have very few flavonoids and white chocolate none.

Some manufacturers claim to use processing techniques that preserve flavonoids, but however many flavonoids chocolate packs in, research has often been done on people eating more than 100g (500 calories worth) of chocolate a day. If you are going to eat this amount every day, then you obviously need to allow for it in your daily calorie balance because gaining weight from eating too much can put a strain on your heart. You would need to walk briskly for more than an hour and a half a day to burn off 100g of chocolate.

Rather than thinking of chocolate as a superfood, you should think of it as a delicious, luxurious treat which, if you can fit it into your day without piling on the pounds (and if you stick with a 35g bar this may well be possible), will certainly not do you any harm, because flavonoids aside, although most of the fat in chocolate is saturated, more than half is an unusual type of saturated fat that does not raise bad cholesterol and may even increase levels of the protective good cholesterol.

Is chocolate good for you? The facts

- Research shows that chocolate is only moderately cariogenic. In other words, it is much less likely to cause tooth decay than standard sweets because it increases acid production only mildly in our mouths, and cocoa contains chemicals that inhibit mouth bacteria.

- Chocolate just scrapes in as a “low GI” food. In other words, it does not cause a big sugar rush after being eaten because the fat that it contains slows down the sugar absorption.

- Experts say the idea that chocolate triggers headaches and acne does not stand up to careful scientific scrutiny.

-Tea, black grape juice and some red wines also give us health-boosting flavonoids.

If you have nutrition questions for Amanda, e-mail her at amandaursell@thetimes.co.uk

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