Who would not love chocolate ?!
Chocolate comes from cacao . It is a plant that has high levels of antioxidants called flavonoids and minerals which may provide lots of health benefits.
- Scientific studies have shown that dark chocolate though bittersweet , is packed with nutrients and antioxidants making it as a superfood
- It has phytonutrients called flavonoids -a plant chemical which can prevent cancer , promote heart health and weight loss
- The darker the chocolate the more antioxidants you can acquire
- Dark chocolates are healthier than milk chocolates. Because dark chocolates contains more cacao than the milk chocolates. It also has less sugar and milk than the milk chocolate
- On a published Journal titled Heart in July 2015 , they found that people who ate more chocolate per day had lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
- According to the Clinical Nutrition journal , those people that ate dark chocolate five times a week had reduced 57% of risk of having heart disease
- On American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , the flavonoids in the the dark chocolate help the body to produce a chemical called nitric oxide. It relaxes the blood vessels and lowers the blood pressure
- Chocolate stimulates neural activity in areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward which cause a decrease in stress and improvement of mood as per Joy DuBost , PhD,RD , nutrition spokesperson and also owner of Dubost Food and Nutrition Solutions
- Eating dark chocolate can increase neuroplasticity by 70 % in our brain which can improve our cognition , mood, and memory according to journal Nutrition Reviews
- To prevent diabetes , eat chocolate! It’s kind of not right , right ? But studies have shown that controlled amounts of dark chocolate could actually help our body to metabolize the glucose – a type of sugar from different foods that becomes energy when our body converts it. Flavonoids in it were found reducing the oxidative stress which is the number one cause of insulin resistance as per the journal published in 2017 entitled Journal of Community and Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives. The risk of diabetes decreases when we improve our body’s sensitivity to insulin
- Dark chocolate can help control are appetite which can result to weight loss. On a book Eat Chocolate , Lose Weight states that a bite of chocolate triggers a hormone that signals our brain that your stomach is already full
- Protects us against free radicals. Epicatechin and quercetin are kinds of flavonoids which can help us fight cancer properties
- Chocolate also has vitamins and minerals like copper, iron , magnesium etc . Manganese is a chemical that supports the production of collagen- protein that makes our skin young and healthy. Some studies also said that consuming dark chocolate may protect us against UV rays from the sun.
Chocolates are really a yum yum go to dessert and indeed a Choc-wow-late ,eh ?
