Chocolate often gets a bad rap for being fatty and full of sugar, but in moderation, chocolate that's high in cocoa can have a positive effect on metabolism.
CORBIS
Whole Foods Seafood Ban: Meet the Fish: Photos
View Caption + #1: Atlantic Halibut
April 25, 2012 - Whole Foods, the Texas-based natural foods supermarket, no longer carries fish considered to be unsustainable. The Whole Foods ban includes fish that is either overfished or caught in a harmful way, according to their website. The popular Atlantic Halibut made the list, though the company will still sell Atlantic cod that is caught by hook and line or gillnets. "Stewardship of the ocean is so important to our customers and to us," David Pilat, the global seafood buyer for Whole Foods told the New York Times. "We're not necessarily here to tell fishermen how to fish, but on a species like Atlantic cod, we are out there actively saying, 'For Whole Foods Market to buy your cod, the rating has to be favorable.'" Here's a look at the list of fish that the superstore no longer sells and why.
Corbis
View Caption +
Octopus Whole Foods uses ratings set by the Blue Ocean Institute, a conservation group, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The ratings are based on factors including how abundant a species is, how quickly it reproduces and whether the catch method damages its habitat.
Corbis
View Caption +
Imported Wild Shrimp "At Whole Foods Market, we've been saying that our mission is to sell only wild-caught fish that has been responsibly caught. For a few years now, we've used color-coded sustainability ratings, from green (best choice) to red (avoid), to help you make an informed choice. Now we're putting our mackerel where our mouth is: To support greater abundance in our oceans, we're no longer carrying red-rated wild-caught seafood!" the company wrote on its blog.
Corbis
View Caption +
Tuna (from specific areas and catch methods rated "red") On their website, Whole Foods says that they stopped selling "species that were extremely depleted in the oceans, such as orange roughy, shark and bluefin tuna" years ago. The company uses the sustainability ratings of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
Corbis
View Caption +
Rockfish According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, "In recent years, reduced fishing has allowed many rockfish populations to recover from low levels. Gear concerns remain, however -- trawl-caught rockfish should still be avoided."
Corbis
View Caption +
Swordfish Some of the gear used to fish swordfish "accidentally catches sea turtles, seabirds and sharks," according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Corbis
View Caption +
Skate Wing Skates are in the overfished category. Most are also caught with bottom trawls, which result in high levels of accidental catch.
Corbis
View Caption +
Sturgeon According to Monterey Bay Aquarium, "Sturgeon farmed in the U.S. is a good alternative to most wild sturgeon, whose populations have seriously declined due to overfishing for sturgeon eggs (caviar)."
Corbis
View Caption +
Tautog Also known as black fish, Tautog are considered a "vulnerable" species. They are found close to shore on hard-bottom habitats, occasionally entering brackish water.
Wikimedia Commons
View Caption +
Trawl-Caught Atlantic Cod Fishermen often catch cod with bottom trawl, large nets that skim across the seafloor. Trawling, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, "damages marine habitats and produces bycatch." NEWS: Can We Save the Tastiest Fish in the Sea?
Corbis
View Caption +
Turbot A cousin of Pacific halibut, turbot are a right-eyed flatfish -- as they develop, their left eye migrates across the top of the skull toward the other eye on the right side. Turbot are yellowish or grayish-brown on top and paler on their underside. NEWS: Oceans’ Fish Could Disappear by 2050
Corbis
View Caption +
Gray Sole Gray sole, a flatfish bottom-dweller, has experienced heavy fishing pressure from domestic and international fleets over the last half-century, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium. NEWS: Fishy Store Labels on 'Sustainable Fish'
Corbis
Related Links
With its relatively high fat and sugar content, though, chocolate has long been considered a fattening and sinful pleasure. To test that assumption, Golomb and colleagues surveyed more than 1,000 healthy adults, whose BMIs ranged from 17 to 50. Below 18 is underweight. Above 25 is overweight. And above 30 is obese.
Among the questions in the diet-focused survey, one asked, "How many times a week do you consume chocolate?" Those who answered with five or more had BMIs that were, on average, a full point lower than people who said they didn't eat any chocolate, the researchers report today in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
Enthusiastic chocolate-eaters didn't exercise more than chocolate-avoiders, nor was their educational history or presumed socioeconomic status any different. And people who ate more chocolate actually ate more calories overall.
Along with other research, Golomb said, these findings suggest that something in chocolate is helping people process calories more efficiently.
The secret may be epicatechin, a naturally occurring compound in cocoa beans that has been linked to impressive health and exercise benefits in experimental settings. In one of Villareal's studies, for example, mice ran 50 percent farther after consuming a relatively small amount of epicatechin.
In another study, which included just five people with heart failure and diabetes, Villareal's team found that epicatechin restored severely damaged mitochondria, the cell's energy factories.
One theory for how chocolate works its magic is that cocoa compounds strengthen and increase the number of mitochondria in cells, and that these effects are independent of any antioxidant activity that chocolate might have. In Golomb's view, cells that are stressed send messages telling the body to turn calories into fat. But chocolate reduces stress on cells, which can then use their extra mitochondria to burn calories instead.
Unfortunately for chocolate lovers everywhere, more is not necessarily better. In fact, Villareal said, according to his research -- both published and yet to be published -- the ideal dose of epicatechin comes in serving of five grams of chocolate, which is about the size of a single Hershey's Kiss. Consuming more than that can cancel out chocolate's potential benefits.
"When you eat a little bit too much, the effects just simply disappear," he said. "This is a very unique sweet point for peak effects."
Researchers recommend eating dark chocolate with between 60 and 70 percent cocoa. The brand doesn't matter, but pick kinds with cocoa butter instead of hydrogenated fats. And as hard as it may be to stop, just a bite or two is probably ideal.