Breakthrough in Heart Health -UPDATED

Despite being raised in a traditional Southern kitchen, I've become very aware of the effects of foods on the heart. Heart disease runs in the family - my grandfather died from it and my dad, well, probably should have. I'm not a strict health nut in the kitchen, but I do pay more attention to ingredients and cooking techniques than I used to.

In my most recent issue of Cooking Light magazine there was an article about chocolate which, in part, praised it's new-found ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Today I happened to read a blog post which mentioned the heart health benefits of peanut butter. Suddenly something clicked in my brain and I realized I had discovered a potential super-food for heart health.

Chocolate peanut butter fudge.

I'm not entirely sure how the load of sugar and marshmallow creme play into that theory, but in the name of cardiovascular research, I'm willing to give the experiment a try.

Regardless, I'm so using this to defend my obsessive love of peanut butter cups.

UPDATE - I consulted a cardiovascular expert (one of my senior cardiology fellows) this morning and he thought this was a brilliant idea. He suggested the peanut butter cup as an emergency measure in the event of a heart attack. The fudge would probably be better as a long term approach since it can be made from purer chocolate (the milk chocolate of the peanut butter cup isn't considered quite as heart healthy as the better grades of chocolate, but there is the peanut butter to consider) and also suggested that the little pills that the Jetsons took in lieu of food could easily have been capsules of chocolate peanut butter fudge. Granted, this came on the heels of a conversation about why on EARTH they'd make brown sugar pop tarts without the frosting. It's just wrong.

** To anyone who stumbles over this via a search engine and doesn't know any better, you really can't take peanut butter cups when you have a heart attack. It will do no good, other than the increased possibility of dying with a smile. My fellows have a warped sense of humor and we joke. If you're worried about heart attacks, TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR! And feel free to talk to our doctors, they're really good and not all of them are goobers.