2 Health Benefits of Eating Dark Chocolate

Things are not always what they appear, and for those of us that love chocolate, the fact that we are able to eat certain types and enjoy them because of their health benefits make this a wonderful surprise. I’m talking about dark chocolate, something that has been known for many years to be beneficial to our health but there are two specific dark chocolate benefits that I would like to discuss in this article.

One of the things that all of us are subject to is the environment around us, and it is very difficult for us to not be affected negatively by it. Because of pollution and other problems in the environment, our body is constantly needing to remove toxins from it. Along with that, we have an internal problem of oxidation that is constantly going on and is releasing free radicals into our system that’s sole purpose is to destroy us from the inside out on a cellular level. The only way for us to effectively combat this is through antioxidants.

Dark chocolate is extremely high in antioxidants, and this is one of the main benefits that sticks out most in people’s minds. Because it is a good idea for us to be eating these antioxidants regularly, including a little bit of dark chocolate in your diet can really make a difference in your overall health. Of course, the darker the chocolate, the better so make sure that you opt for chocolate which is a minimum of 70 percent.

Another one benefit of eating this particular food is that it has been shown to reduce high blood pressure. Hypertension is a problem that far too many of us have to deal with regularly, and it can be extremely difficult to get under control. In studies, however, the dark chocolate benefits of reducing hypertension were clearly recognized. In reality, it wasn’t the chocolate itself that was doing it but rather, the plant phenol, specifically cocoa phenol that was responsible for the drop in high blood pressure.

Just because there are these two benefits to eating dark chocolate, however, does not necessarily mean that you should allow yourself to get out of control when eating it. Even though this type of chocolate may have a lower percentage of sugar when compared to milk chocolate, it still has sugar in it, nonetheless. The additional calories that you eat whatever consuming this food can easily outweigh the benefits that you receive – it is certainly a case of little and often, too much of this food type and you’ll start to really ingest more calories than you need to. The concept is similar to that of drinking red wine, a glass a day can give you a lot of health benefits but clearly drinking a bottle a day will completely destroy the advantages of consuming small amounts.

One other thing that you may want to consider is eating raw cocoa nibs. This is an excellent way for you to get all of the same benefits, including the antioxidant power punch and the hypertension reduction, all in one. The best part is, you are able to get this without the unnecessary sugar that often goes along in the darker chocolate candy which is bought off of the shelf. On the topic of eating, you want to make sure that you have the right diet recipes for you otherwise the advantages of eating controlled amounts of dark chocolate will be greatly outweighed by other unhealthy activities if you haven’t for the correct diet.