My Lifesaving Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I must apologize for my posting negligence; it has been one of those weeks.

But my week ended on a fun note as I got the opportunity to visit my best friend down in NYC. I could post about the heaven-on-earth New England clam chowder I got for lunch at the Chelsea Market today, but instead I want to talk about my bus snacks. Last time I took the bus down, I was in a mad rush to make it to the bus on time and neglected to pack travel snacks. This was, of course, a terrible mistake, so this time I made it a point to stop at the C-store on Friday before I left.

I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what traits a travel snack should possess: non-perishable, not messy, easy to eat with your hands, and not likely to induce car sickness in myself or those around me. With all these characteristics in mind, I settled on dark chocolate covered pretzels. The name not withstanding (Flipz! I love it when the name on my food is intentionally misspelled...) chocolate covered pretzels met all the requirements for suitable road food. But little did I know, not only would these pretzels stave off the four o clock tummy rumblies, but they also FIGHT CANCER.

That's right, in addition to sugar, salt and fat (the trifecta of deliciousness) Flipz proudly claims to contain antioxidants; there is a special little label on the front, complete with a comforting picture of cacao beans nestled on a green leaf that seems to imply "I'm not junk food, I'm tasty health food!"

Well beyond the obvious observation of how this is an example of companies trying to capitalize on the increasing "health awareness" of the average consumer, I got to thinking about antioxidants: what they are, what they do, why they should matter at all to my chocolate covered pretzels.

An antioxidant is, bear with me, a molecule that prevents other molecules from being oxidized. Without going into the nitty gritty details of oxidation, suffice it to say that oxidation reactions can lead to molecules (you've probably heard of free radicals) whose chemistry is ultimately damaging to cells. And of course cell damage leads to cancer, and nobody likes cancer. So the idea is that by consuming antioxidants, you can prevent the chain of chemical events that leads to cancer. So where do chocolate covered pretzels come into play?

It all hinges on my preference for dark chocolate. Cacao beans typically contain polyphenols, specifically flavanoids, a variety of free radicals found in many kinds of plants. However, here is the interesting part. Flavanoids are bitter-tasting, so even in dark chocolate, they may be removed and the chocolate may be darkened artificially so the manufacturers don't have to deal with the bitterness of the flavanols. Obviously DeMet's Candy Company, the proud makers of Flipz, did not remove the flavnoids, but there it is hard to tell who has and who hasn't. There is a potential economic benefit to keeping the flavanoids in if you get to label your chocolate as containing antioxidants and advertise it as a health food, but candy makers are under no obligation to indicate the flavanol content of their chocolate.

This is according to The Devil in the Dark Chocolate, an article published in The Lancet in 2007. This article makes another pretty excellent point about all the health claims surrounding dark chocolate; if you're going to rely on dark chocolate to avoid health problems like cancer or atherosclerosis, you're going to be dealing with some other pretty serious health problems pretty quickly anyway.

So if I were feeling concerned about the presence of free radicals in my cells, I probably wouldn't be turning to Flipz for the cure. However, if I were look for a delightful combination of salty and sweet, chocolate-covered pretzels would be 100% the correct answer.