Cocoa bean prices are on the rise, and some say a hedge fund is to blame

Some of our favourite foods have been given a bad rap over the years — but now, experts say that not only are they fine in moderation, but they’re actually good for you. Here are 5 foods that have been redeemed because of their healthy benefits. So go ahead and live a little — and indulge (a little).

Read more here: Five foods you thought were bad

Read more here: Marshmallow Chocolate Cream Cheese Bars Recipe

You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past several years not to have heard all the hoopla about chocolate.

Yes it can lower blood pressure, yes it can decrease inflammation, yes it does make your blood less sticky which in turn can diminish the likelihood of having a heart attack, yes it tastes amazing, and yes it does make your behind bigger if you eat too much of it.

Just because there are some health benefits associated with eating chocolate, doesn’t mean you can eat a huge honking milk chocolate bar for lunch and call it a good nutrition day.

Read more: Not all chocolate is created equal: Cutting to the chase about chocolate

LONDON – The Easter Bunny might lower your chances of having a heart problem. According to a new study, small doses of chocolate every day could decrease your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by nearly 40 per cent.

German researchers followed nearly 20,000 people over eight years, sending them several questionnaires about their diet and exercise habits.

They found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day – or about one square of a chocolate bar – had a 39 per cent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke. The study is scheduled to be published Wednesday in the European Heart Journal.

Read more: Study: A small dose of chocolate could cut heart attack or stroke risk by almost 40 per cent

Also see BBC’s Chocolate ‘can cut blood pressure and help heart’

Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at a prestigious TED Conference.

“We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,” Li said. “What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.”

The Massachusetts-based foundation is identifying foods containing chemicals that evidently choke-off blood supplies to tumors, starving them to death.

Li cited a Harvard Medical School study showing that men who ate cooked tomatoes several times weekly were 30 to 50 percent less likely to have prostate cancer.

“There is a medical revolution happening all around us,” Li said. “If we’re right, it could impact on consumer education, food service, public health, and even insurance agencies.”

About a dozen drugs are already in use to deprive tumors of blood supplies in a treatment tactic called “anti-angiogenesis.

The foundation pitted some foods against approved drugs and found that soy, parsley, red grapes, berries and other comestibles were either as effective or more potent in battling cancer cells.

Eaten together, the foods were even more effective in fighting cancer.

“We discovered that Mother Nature laced a large number of foods and herbs with anti-angiogenesis features,” Li said.

“For many people around the world, dietary cancer treatment may be the only solution because not everyone can afford cancer drugs.”

The foundation also discovered that anti-angiogenesis properties of foods melt away fat, which relies heavily on blood flow to sustain itself.

Tests showed that mice genetically prone to be chubby could be trimmed to average mouse size using the approach.

“It got weight down to a set point for normal mice,” Li said. “In other words, we can’t create supermodel mice.”

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