Here are eight great reasons why you can enjoy chocolate, even though it wouldn’t take much for me to enjoy it anyway
1.A study from 2014 found that dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while also preventing white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels – both common causes of artery clogging.
2. Dark chocolate is packed with beneficial minerals such as potassium, zinc and selenium, and a 100g bar of dark (70 per cent or more) chocolate provides 67 per cent of the RDA of iron.
3. Cocoa contains chemicals called polyphenols, and eating chocolate with high polyphenol levels – like that found in dark chocolate – could improve ‘good’ cholesterol levels, according to registered nutritionist Gaynor Bussell.
4. People who eat chocolate regularly tend to be thinner, according to a study of more than 1,000 people who were all asked: ‘How many times a week do you consume chocolate?’ The researchers, who published their results in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found people who ate chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who only ate it occasionally – even after the other foods in their diet were taken into account.
5. It’s good for your skin. Chocolate has skin softening properties, probably as it contains cocoa butter. Hydration of the skin is possible – chocolate is a good moisturizer.
6. A Finnish study found that chocolate reduced stress in expectant mothers, and that the babies of such mothers smiled more often than the offspring of non-chocolate-eating parents.
7. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), which is the same chemical that your brain creates when you feel like you’re falling in love. PEA encourages your brain to release feel-good endorphins. You can enjoy it pure or used on desserts.
8. Eating chocolate increases our endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers.
Source: Natural Society, The Village Kitchen, Dessert Parlour, Bettavend
