Chocolate Denial

Many Paleo folks abstain from every form of seed, because of unfavorable omega 6/ omega 3 ratios, but yet they keep dark chocolate on the good list.  It just occured to me to realize that chocolate is a seed, and wonder how it's much better than other seeds...

USDA data on "Baking chocolate, unsweetened, squares"

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100 g	Fat Class
18:2 undifferentiated1	g	1.435	Omega 6
20:4 undifferentiated1	g	0	Omega 6
18:3 undifferentiated	g	0.117	Omega 3
18:04	g	0	Omega 3
20:3 undifferentiated1	g	0	Omega 3
20:4 undifferentiated1	g	0	Omega 3
20:5 n-3 (EPA)1	g	0	Omega 3
22:5 n-3 (DPA)	g	0	Omega 3
22:5 n-3 (DPA)	g	0	Omega 3
22:6 n-3 (DHA)1	g	0	Omega 3

That's a pretty sad Omega 6/3 ratio for a "healthy" food.

I'm still slightly in denial, and many chocolate companies use cheaper fats in their products, so I looked up cocoa butter, the results were not much better:

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100 g	Fat class
18:3 undifferentiated	g	0.1	Omega 3
18:04	g	0	Omega 3
20:5 n-3 (EPA)	g	0	Omega 3
22:5 n-3 (DPA)	g	0	Omega 3
22:6 n-3 (DHA)	g	0	Omega 3
18:2 undifferentiated	g	2.8	Omega 6
18:3 undifferentiated	g	0.1	Omega 6
20:4 undifferentiated	g	0	Omega 6

Dark chocolate may be a reasonable cheat food, low in sugar, rich in antioxidants, minimal processing agents, but it can hardly be considered a "good" food on the low omega 6 diet.

Sorry Paleo dieters!