Dark Chocolate Nutrition Research

Lately it seems almost every chocolate product on the market has come out with a dark chocolate version. Now probably the chocolate manufacturers were just looking to create some brand extension but what they didn’t know was – a new healthy snack was born. The cocoa bean like the coffee bean comes from a plant.

An antioxidant called flavonoids is what makes dark chocolate so helpful to your body. Antioxidants help your systems stay healthy by reducing the number of free radicals moving around in your body. Normally, the body can deal free radicals, but if antioxidants are unavailable, or if an abundance of free-radical are produced due to such things as stress or excesssive sun exposure cell damage occurs. Dark chocolate has an unusually high level of antioxidants.

One long term study tracked cardiac patients aged 45 to 70 chocolate consumption for ten years. The group that ate a few ounces of chocolate twice a week or more were 66 percent less likely to die from cardiac disease than those that didn’t eat chocolate. Even if the person only at chocolate once a week the risk was reduced by 50%. Eating chocolate only once a month still dropped the risk by 27 percent.

Dark chocolate has been shown to have an positive effect on brain function. People who ate dark chocolate did better on tests of cognitive ability than people who did not consume dark chocolate. One of the ways your brain stays healthy is by having enough blood flowing to it. The flavonoids contained in dark chocolate help the bloods vessels stay pliant.

There are more benefits to dark chocolate besides the antioxidants. Dark chocolate actually contains endorphins. Endorphins are responsible for that great feeling people who exercise are always talking about. You can get endorphins in other ways besides exercising and eat dark chocolate is one way. Serotonin which is also found in dark chocolate is a natural anti-depressant.

Even dark chocolate’s fat content has something to offer in terms of health benefits. Though the fat content is high not all of the fat is saturated. Some of it is actually monounsaturated and some of it is stearic acid which does not cause you to produce bad cholesterol.

Doctors say you have to limit your intake of dark chocolate or you will cancel out the benefits. A few ounces a day is sufficient to get the health advantages. Look for dark chocolate bars that are just dark chocolate – no fillings because they just add sugar. Use dark chocolate that is 70% or higher cocoa content. Start with a 70% bar and if you like it try going for a higher percentage.

You would be surprised by how making small changes in your diet can improve your health. Visit us at Curepure.com and find out more about healthy meals and healthy heart Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory