Dark Chocolate Health Benefits

You’ve probably heard on the news that chocolate is now considered to be good for you, but you may not know the details about why, and what type of chocolate you should be consuming.

First of all, only dark chocolate is considered to be “good for you”.  Milk chocolate doesn’t contain enough of the beneficial flavonoids, which are a type of antioxidant.  Dark chocolate contains almost eight times the number of antioxidants found in strawberries!

You should look for dark chocolate that is at least 65-70% cocoa.  These will have the highest flavonoids levels, and will also contain less sugar.  You can also buy sugar free dark chocolate if you’re a diabetic or you’d like to cut down on your sugar consumption.

There are two main benefits that have been shown to come from dark chocolate.  First of all, it has been shown to lower blood pressure.  Secondly, it can lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) by up to 10%!

It also has a few additional benefits:

• It stimulates endorphin production, which give you pleasure.
• It contains serotonin, which is a natural antidepressant.
• It contains stimulants which can make you feel more alert.

You should note that you shouldn’t drink milk with your dark chocolate.  Research has shown that milk can prevent the antioxidants in the chocolate from being absorbed properly, thus negating their effect.  You might consider washing your dark down with green tea or red wine, both of which also contain high levels of antioxidants!