Chocolate and health
If you’re looking for a healthy sweet treat for these upcoming cold days, dark chocolate might be a good choice for you. Dark chocolate is a tasty superfood that is packed with nutrients, especially antioxidants. Here are some benefits of dark chocolate:
- Weight management: Eating chocolate may help you control your appetite, as it signals the brain about satiety.
- Heart health: Several studies suggests that chocolate consumption is correlated with better cardiovascular health with lower risks of heart disease and stroke.
- Brain health: Chocolate consumption may act as a stimulant that increases pleasure and reward, decreases stress and improves the mood. Chocolate also helps improve memory and cognition.
- Diabetes and blood glucose: Chocolate consumption aids with glucose metabolism. Flavonoids in dark chocolate play a role in reducing oxidative stress, thus increasing sensitivity to insulin – the main hormones that moves glucose into the cells from blood stream.
- Inflammation and cancer: It is suggested by previous studies that antioxidants content in dark chocolate can help fight the free radicals, thus lower the risk of developing cancer.
Before getting yourself a chocolate bar, let’s repeat, it’s DARK chocolate, meaning that white and milk chocolate does not count. Your chocolate choice should contain at least 70% cacao or higher to have these benefits. Also, chocolate is still chocolate, containing a high saturated fat content. It is recommended to have no more than 1 oz of dark chocolate per day to get full advantages without counteract its weight control effect.
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