Eating Dark chocolate is like a dream for kids as well as adults. Due to the suggestion of your dentist most of people can’t express their love towards dark chocolate.
So after knowing the benefits of dark chocolate you can live you dream to eat dark chocolate every day and use these benefits as excuse as well.
Generally dark chocolate contains cacao solid and cacao butter without any additive milk and other flavor.
Many scientific studies show that dark chocolate is a very healthy to your health as it is loaded with antioxidants and minerals which make it favorite food to eat for all over the world with bitter sweet taste.
Dark chocolate is packed with phytonutrients widely known as flavanoids, naturally derive antioxidants.
Flavanoids are the antioxidants popular for their property to help in weight loss, maintaining heart health and prevention in cancer according an article published in the Journal of Nutritional Science in December 2016.
Cacao plant also contains theobromine which can help you to reduce the inflammation and potentially lower blood pressure Explained by Toby Amidor, RD, a cookbook author and nutrition expert. In fact dark chocolate is more enriched with antioxidants in comparison of green tea and red wine.
Toby Amidor says that “The darker you go, the more antioxidants you’ll get, but there needs to be a balance between eating palatable dark chocolate and getting the health benefits.”
According to the Harvard T.H. Chan school of public heath chocolate bar with 70 % or more than that is the best for your in comparison to lower percentages of cacao as they have more added sugar and unhealthy fats.
Although dark chocolate is full of healthy nutrient and a better option than milk chocolate, still it is full of lots of calories and saturated fats. Only 1 ounce of dark chocolate per day is recommended by Toby Amidor.
Here are some health benefits of dark chocolate:
1. Chocolate: Good For Gut And May Helps You to Weight Loss
Eating dark chocolate may helps you to lose weight and good for your gut flora. Neuroscientist Will Clower, PhD, wrote a whole book named “Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight” ,which describes that daily eating a bite of chocolate before or after meal triggers the hormones followed sending the signal to the brain to make you feel full. Over eating of dark chocolate causes harm for sure.
In an article published in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology furthermore reported that chocolate behaves like prebiotic during digestion time. Which helps to provide a healthy environment for the growth of beneficial bacterias in your gut?
Surprisingly the more gut bacteria, much better digestion and they also helps you to absorb nutrients as well as promotes metabolism, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
2. Dark Chocolate in prevention of heart diseases
An article published in July 2015 in the journal Heart, a meta analysis of eight studies based on the research of the link between chocolate consumption and diseases carried out an as a result it has been found out that people who ate more chocolate per day had the lower risk of heart disease and risk of heart stroke.
According to Researchers hypothesis, the flavanoids present in dark chocolate that maintain heart health by producing nitric oxide which causes relaxation of blood vessels and helps to lower the blood pressure. (review published in March 2017 in the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology).
Many of the studies are are there but they are also limited and they cant directly establish between the flavanoids rich dark chocolate and stroke risk so more study is needed to make it sure..
3. Dark chocolate is good for your skin health
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health give a list about the mineras and vitamins packed in dark chocolate like copper, magnesium, and iron which are beneficial to your skin. For example magnesium helps and promotes the production of collagen.
Collagen is a complex structure of amino acids (protein) that helps your skin to look healthy and young for a long period. While calcium helps in the repair and renovation of the skin.
According to American academy of dermatology, 40000 of skin cells fall out each day from our body. Several studies also have been reported that high level of antioxidants may help you to protect your skin from the harmful UV rays directly daage your skin and DNA.
While other researches was failed to show the protective effect of antioxidants rich chocolate against UV rays but they did show a little effect on the elasticity of skin on the sun exposure.
4. Dark chocolate: improving cognition, boost mood and prevent memory loss
Dark chocolate improves your cognition ……!!!! This is not just a imagination, many of eh studies have been shown that consuming high concentration of dark chocolate may helps you to keep you brain healthy.
Joy DuBost, PhD, RD, a nutrition spokesperson and owner of Dubost Food & Nutrition Solutions, explained that chocolate stimulates neural activity in areas of the brain which is responsible for pleasure and reward following decrease the stress and make your mood cheerful.
Further research presented at the 2018 Experimental Biology meeting has been found that eating 48 grams (g) of organic chocolate containing 70 % cacao increase neuroplasticity in the brain, which leads improvements in memory and cognition.
A study published in April 2018 in The FASEB Journal, it has been found that antioxidants presents n dark chocolate accumulates in the regions of brain which are responsible for memory, cognition and mood.
5. Dark Chocolate may helps in maintaining blood sugar level and risk of diabetes
Eating chocolate prevents diabetes? Daily consumption of chocolate is not a good option for the prevention of diabetes as it contains lots of calories but it is quite surprising to know that dark chocolate which is enriched with cacao can actually helps glucose metabolism.
In a study published in October 2017 the Journal of Community and Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives, this is noted that the flavanoids packed in dark chocolate surprisingly found to reduce oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is known to be the primary cause of insulin resistance.
In January 2017 in the journal appetite has been shown that people rarely consumed dark chocolate have the almost twice the risk of developing diabetes for five years than in comparison with the individual who consumed dark chocolate.
6. Dark chocolate scavenges free radicals and play an important role in cancer Prevention
There are some limited Evidences about the dark chocolate that it possess the potential to protect some kind of cancer but they are growing.
All kind of antioxidants tends to scavenge free radicals and prevent cells form damage. Free radicals are oxygen molecules that are responsible for the aging and many diseases explained in article published in January 2015 in the Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry.
Dr. DuBost says that “When you have too many free radicals in your body, they start to attack your cells, and that can lead, over time, to low-grade inflammation and to some diseases — cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s,”
Some flavanoids present in chocolate like epicatechin and quercetin , believed to have potential fighting against cancer. Most of the studies are done in the animal model so a detailed study is needed in human subject.
7. Dark Chocolate May exchange Good Cholesterol level with Bad Cholesterol
Dark chocolate is also considered as a cholesterol lowering food. A combination of dark chocolate, unsweetened cacao and a hand full of almonds helps n lowering the low density lipoproteins (LDL), which is known as bad cholesterol for health.
On significant increase in LDL, they started to get clogged on the wall of arteries is reported in a study which was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in November 2017.
According to Dubost, cacao butter in dark chocolate may help to increase the level of high density lipoproteins which refers as good protein. Cacao butter is enriched with monosaturated fats and oleic acid, the fats that makes you use healthy olive oil.
However cacao butter is more loaded with monosaturated fats, in excess they can cause harm to your health. So it is very necessary to consider about the portion of dark chocolate should be consumed daily in order to not get harm.
Many of the researches on chocolate and good cholesterol are short term so it is not appropriate to say that dark chocolate can cure cholesterol related problems.
8. Dark Chocolate Is Delicious treat with lots of nutrition
One of the most potential benefits is that dark chocolate is a bittersweet delicious treat with lots of nutrition. The darker the chocolate indicates higher the amount of nutrients.
Chocolate darker than 70 % contains higher amount of antioxidants, fiber, calcium, copper, potassium and magnesium is explained in a study published in the journal antioxidants. Dark chocolate also contains calories and fats so make sure to use mindfully in daily diet.
According to Toby Amidor selection of the brand of dr chocolate is a necessary process in order to get healthiest chocolate as different producer use organic and chemical fertilizer and pesticides.
So it’s better to check ingredients list and make sure to choose organic products in case of dark chocolate as well as for other food products.
