We have often been told by others, “dark chocolate is healthy!” However, it’s a little difficult to believe considering chocolate is pure sugar and can be very fattening. I have always been a fan of dark chocolate but I never considered it a “healthy” food choice. I am among the people very skeptical about it, so I decided to give into my curiosity and find out for myself what exactly constitutes dark chocolate as healthy. And I’m sure others will have a better understanding on the science behind this phenomenon as well!
So what is it about dark chocolate? The answer is plant phenols — cocoa phenols, to be exact. Studies show that eating a small amount of dark chocolate two or three times each week can help lower your blood pressure. Emphasis on small. If you stick to a small quantity, dark chocolate can improve blood flow and may help prevent the formation of blood clots.
Eating dark chocolate may also prevent arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). It also increases blood flow to the brain as well as to the heart, so it can help improve cognitive function, and can even reduce your risk of stroke. In fact, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University found that dark chocolate shields cells in your brain, and accordingly protects it from damage caused by stroke. This really impressed me!
Dark chocolate is loaded with many antioxidants. Antioxidants help free your body of free radicals, which cause oxidative damage to cells. Free radicals are implicated in the aging process and may be a cause of cancer, so eating antioxidant rich foods like dark chocolate can protect you from many types of cancer and slow the signs of aging.
Dark chocolate also contains some of the following vitamins and minerals in high concentrations: potassium, copper, magnesium, and iron. The copper and potassium in dark chocolate help prevent against stroke and cardiovascular ailments. The iron in chocolate protects against iron deficiency anemia, and the magnesium in chocolate helps prevent type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
In a Harvard study, it found that eating a small square of dark chocolate daily can help lower blood pressure for people with hypertension. The study joins the growing research into the heart-healthy benefits of flavonoids, compounds in unsweetened chocolate that cause dilation of the blood vessels. The study analyzed 24 chocolate studies involving 1,106 people. It found that dark chocolate, the kind that contains at least 50 to 70 percent cocoa, lowered blood pressure in all participants
, but most notably in those with hypertension.
Eric Ding of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a coauthor of the study, says researchers also found that chocolate increased insulin sensitivity, good for lowering diabetes risk. Dark chocolate also appears to affect cholesterol. The Harvard researchers found some evidence for a small decrease in LDL (bad) cholesterol and a significant increase in HDL (good) cholesterol. This combined evidence definitely expanded my opinion of dark chocolate in a positive way!
It might seem too good to be true, but as you can see, there is real scientific proof that dark chocolate is good for you! Now I’m not saying I’m going to live and breathe dark chocolate now (even though I wish I could) but I feel a little less guilty now about indulging in a piece or two here and there! So if you’re going to treat yourself to some chocolate, definitely pick dark because you can be doing your body some good while enjoying something tasty!
I always new dark chocolate was the healthiest chocolate, but I never new why. I guess everything should be taken in moderation! I did some more research, and interestingly enough, even milk chocolate lowered the risk of having cardiovascular disease; however, scientists also thought that this idea could be due to since people who have a high risk for cardiovascular disease would typically avoid sweets while people who are healthier have no concerns and eat more chocolate.
Thank you for clarifying that dark chocolate is the healthiest of chocolates. It had been known that this type of chocolate was good for the heart however, there is a limit too of such product because chocolate is still chocolate. Same goes with a wine a glass is good but not the whole bottle in a sitting. it is really hard for me to like dark chocolate for its bitterness but I rather have that taste and I know its healthier than have a piece of milk chocolate and just be full of calories and fat.