The chocolate bar, a little slab of dark brown heaven, once was considered an enemy of good nutrition.

But a UW-Eau Claire student has found that chocolate can have some healthy benefits.

During the course of her English 110 class, freshman Katie Steffes discovered that chocolate contains chemicals called flavinols, which benefit a person’s circulatory system.

Steffes, a fan of chocolate, said her research assuaged the guilt she felt in consuming an occasional chocolate bar or M&Ms.

“I did lose some guilt,” Steffes said.

Before she completed her research, Steffes said, she used to tell herself, “I shouldn’t be eating chocolate. I should be eating something else.”

Her English class had an assignment requiring students to create a scientific research paper with a premise that seemed absurd. The students needed to make up research supporting the claim and use the fake findings to show that they could make a paper with the proper structure and method of source utilization.

While working on the assignment, Steffes heard about real scientific research on chocolate that claimed it had health benefits.

For a later assignment, Steffes chose to write an article on her findings on chocolate, connecting flavinols to cardiovascular health.

She used information from a series of studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study done at Penn State University and an article from Science Daily magazine.

The studies’ findings revealed that participants who took a small dose of chocolate had slower blood clotting, an increase in “good” cholesterol (HDL) and no significant increase in their “bad” cholesterol (LDL).

Steffes said flavinols also have a large amount of antioxidants in them, which get rid of free radicals — or “bad guys” — in the blood stream that could damage the arterial walls.

All of these effects together led scientists to believe that the flavinols and, even fatty acid in chocolate, can lead to a reduced risk of heart disease, heart attacks and dangerous blood clots in the bloodstream.

Despite this health benefit, she said chocolate is still a high-calorie food that some people should avoid.

“I’m not saying everyday consume bags and bags of M&Ms,” Steffes said.

To get the health benefits of flavinols, the studies that Steffes found suggested a 50-gram or 2-ounce bar of dark chocolate. Flavinols and beneficial fatty acids were found in higher concentrations in dark chocolate than milk chocolate.

Aside from chocolate, flavinols also have been found in fruits, teas, vegetables and red wine. The amount of flavinols per serving was highest in chocolate, followed by strawberries and apples. Local nutrition experts have mixed opinions on the health benefits of chocolate.

“I don’t think chocolate is as bad as we thought,” said Susan Kafik-Miller, a registered dietitian at Sacred Heart Hospital. “It can be part of a balanced, good diet.”