Savoring the Health Benefits of Chocolate
Sweet. Delicious. Indulgent. Heart-healthy. Yep, these words are all describing the Cadillac of desserts: chocolate. While most people love chocolate for the flavor and richness, chocolate is actually a top-secret health food! As if we needed them, here are some excellent reasons to love chocolate in all its incarnations:
It can improve blood flow by decreasing the chance of clotting. The flavenoids (healthy compounds commonly found in plant-based food) in chocolate can have essentially the same effects as aspirin by thinning the blood and preventing platelets from sticking together. This helps prevent the chance of heart attacks and strokes—good news if we ever heard it!
The flavenoids responsible for thinning the blood also have an antioxidant effect. Antioxidants work to limit free radical damage within the body. In fact, chocolate’s Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity (the measure of an antioxidant’s strength) is greater than that of many traditionally healthy foods such as blueberries!
Half the fat in chocolate is good fat! Oleic acid, which makes up 50 percent of the fat content in chocolate (which comes from cocoa butter) is monounsaturated fat, meaning it’s good for the heart, similar to olive oil. The downside is the other 50 percent is not so good, being composed of saturated fats—decidedly unhealthy.
The best news we’ve found comes from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, which found that chocolate and sweet eaters enjoyed roughly an extra year of life compared to those who abstained entirely, provided they ate sweets and chocolate three times a month. (We know, having to eat chocolate regularly—what a drag!)
The caveat: dark chocolate offers far more health benefits than milk chocolate. The more sugar and additives that are put into chocolate, the more beneficial effects are diluted. Also, chocolate should still be eaten in moderation—think of the health benefits as similar to red wine (the flavenoid factor is shared between the two) in that overindulgence can entirely negate any positive health effects. Researchers are still unsure of how much chocolate needs to be consumed (and in what form) to reap the full benefits. Still, the overall news is good. Cheers to the benefits of flavenoid-rich chocolate, our new favorite “health” food!
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