Is Chocolate Good For Your Health?
Chocolate, everyone’s favorite delicacy that not only charges optimism but can also boost your energy levels. Chocolate is an excellent natural antidepressant, which helps to overcome and relieve sadness.
Today, its benefits and side effects for human health are well researched. New candies and chocolate bars are very different from the invigorating Indian drink “Chilate” of cocoa beans. That ancestor of modern sweetness had a bitter, tart taste, but the Aztecs, who made this delicious product, valued it for its ability to give joy and strength. Therefore, the recipe was a strict secret, and cocoa beans were valued above gold.
Chocolate has long been a symbol of well-being, material wealth, luxury, and pleasure. However, its benefits are a little doubtful. For example, the sugar content can damage those with overweight or diabetes. On the other hand, those with a sweet tooth like a pleasant chocolate taste.
The Health benefits of chocolate are mainly noticeable during periods of severe fatigue and loss of life power. A piece of chocolate can restore your energy levels for new achievements. However, chocolate bars or “snickers” cannot replace your full lunch, even despite its high-calorie content. So, is chocolate good for our health or not? Let’s take a close look at this question.
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Chocolate Benefits
The benefits for all sweet tooths are apparent. Scientists have proved its anxiety-relieving and general toning properties, and even a diet will not be a hindrance to enjoying its great taste. Black chocolate can be a good option even for people observing their weight. The main thing to do is to follow proportions and choose your right daily dosage. A small chocolate bar or a piece of it weighing about 50 grams is a healthy daily portion that is not recommended to exceed.
The positive and negative impact of chocolate on the human body is the theme of research by scientists around the world. Thereby, an increasing number of results reveal potential health benefits and destroy some stereotypes about the harm chocolate does to the human body. Let’s highlight five scientifically proven facts about chocolate’s benefits for our health.
Protects Against Blood Inflammation
A 2008 study found that eating one dark chocolate bar per week will help you avoid the risk of heart issues. Consuming about 6.7 grams of dark chocolate within a day can help to keep the blood inflammation-inducing proteins away.
May Prevent Cancer
Cocoa contains a substance called pentameric procyanidin (or pentamer) that can disrupt the spreading of cancer cells. Scientists from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University treated cancer cells with pentamers back in 2005, and the proteins responsible for cancer growth were suppressed, thereby the cells stopped dividing.
May Reduce The Risk Of Diabetes
The Italians know a lot about a healthy diet. Therefore, a little study from the University of L’Aquila, in Italy, has shown that eating chocolate raises insulin sensitivity, which can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes.
For example, chocolate, infused with a unique and natural component, known as CBD oil, can help you to fight type two diabetes or T2D. Scientific studies have shown that CBD users have not only a lower body mass index and a smaller waist circumference but also a lower risk of diabetes and obesity.
Strengthens Your Brain
Scientists from Johns Hopkins University conducted that dark chocolate protects your brain cells from damage caused by a stroke. In their study, the compound in the chocolate, called epicatechin, significantly reduces brain damage in mice. Scientists at California’s Salk Institute also found that epicatechin improves memory in mice.
Makes You Live Longer
A woman from Guinness World Records, who lived 122 years, ate two and a half pounds of dark chocolate a week. It shows that eating chocolate increases life expectancy by two years, and this is confirmed by Harvard University research.
However, most of the chocolate sold in grocery stores is heavily processed, meaning that it loses many of its vital nutrients. Moreover, some of the research that proves the beneficial properties of particular chocolate have been paid for by the chocolate brands, so you should keep this information in mind and be careful.
