By: Juliette
Siegfried
What's that you say? Chocolate, mentioned in an article on a
health-conscious website, and touted as if it has actual benefits for
one's health? Surely the Millennium is upon us.
It's not
magic... it only sounds like magic
Chocolate
is, after all, a plant substance, related to and thus sharing the nutritional
benefits of other dark vegetables. One of these benefits is the presence in dark
chocolate (again, in dark or pure chocolate, not in milk chocolate or white
chocolate) of high amounts of flavonoids, in particular catechins, which are
powerful antioxidants. We need antioxidants in our diet because they help us to
fight the effects of aging. They do this by reducing the number of free
radicals in the bloodstream, elements that increase oxidation, and thus
contribute to heart disease and other health problems.
Catechins
also stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the brain chemicals that
enable us to feel good and experience pleasure and a sense of well-being, and
serotonin, which is the body's own natural antidepressant. So yes, all those
stories you read about in the press that claim that popping a bite of chocolate
can possibly do more for your sense of well-being than popping a Valium may be
correct. The flavonoids in dark chocolate also help to absorb ultraviolet
light, and thus protect the skin, increase the blood flow to it, and keep it
hydrated.
Dark
chocolate has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) levels by up
to 10 percent. A recent British study showed that those who ate 7.5 grams of
dark chocolate daily reduced their risk of heart attack and stroke by 39%,
compared to those who ate .7 grams. In this study, more chocolate was actually
better. This article is sounding better by the minute, right?
Great. So I can binge on chocolate as much as I want,
right?
Uh…no.
Sorry. Chocolate is still full of calories, and eating too much of it will
still make you fat. In most of the research studies proving the benefits of
dark chocolate, the amount of chocolate consumed by the test subjects per day
was the size of one Hershey's Kiss.
So, as with
many things that are good for us, when it comes to chocolate, there is a point
of diminishing returns – more does not mean better. Remember that one 100 gram
bar of chocolate contains about 500 calories, and eating that much would
seriously impact most people's attempts to either lose weight or keep it at a
sensible level. If you were to add a full bar of chocolate to your diet, you'd
have to balance those 500 added calories by cutting out something else.
But this
is still good news
And, as
"health news" goes, refreshing. Instead of being told that something
we love to eat or drink is bad for us, we learn that something we enjoy is good
for us. If eaten in moderation.
If part of
you still feels guilty over adding one small piece of dark chocolate to your
diet, think of it as medicine, not a guilty pleasure. Like other forms of
medicine, a little goes a long way and produces beneficial results, and too
much can produce detrimental results. So rejoice that one of nature's sweet
treats turns out to actually be good for us, but don't overdo it. Don't replace
other foods in your already balanced diet with chocolate. Just add a little
dark chocolate to that diet. Think of it as medicine that actually tastes good,
gives you more energy and boosts your happiness levels, and that you can buy in
almost any shop, as opposed to having to go to a pharmacy or health food store.
Source: healthguidance.org
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