A Chocolate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

If you think that chocolate is bad for you, think again. When we think chocolate, we usually think candy, calories, pleasure and fattening food, not necessarily in that order. Chocolate is often thought of as an unhealthy food, but besides giving you pleasure, did you know that eating chocolate can actually be good for your health?

Chocolate can be used in cancer prevention. Studies have shown that cocoa beans contain a high amount of flavonoids, which are antioxidants that play an active part in cancer prevention. The flavonoids contained in cocoa are flavonols. It appears that cocoa contains as many as three times as many antioxidants as green tea.

Chocolate can reduce your chances of getting heart disease. Flavonol-rich cocoa helps processing nitric oxide, which is a gas that helps relaxing blood vessels; nitric oxide promotes blood flow, thereby acting as an active agent against high blood pressure.

Chocolate contains theobromine, which is a mild stimulant; theobromine has been shown to be more effective in relieving coughs than codeine, a popular cough medicine.

Although chocolate is high in saturated fat, which is the kind of fat that raises the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood, this particular saturated fat called stearic acid is not linked to an increase of bad cholesterol.

Mars Incorporated, one of the biggest confectionery manufacturing companies, in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, has been researching the health benefits of chocolate and we could well in the future witness the apparition of some cocoa-prescription drugs that would treat diabetes, dementia and other ailments.

The fewer manufacturing processes cocoa beans have gone through, the better; as for most foods, processing reduces the health benefits of chocolate. White and milk chocolate have very few flavonols, as most have been removed by the manufacturing process. Dark chocolate, which is a more natural form of the delicacy, contain more of the antioxidants. Cocoa powder which is the least processed type of chocolate is the healthiest option.

Milk is thought to reduce the body's intake of the antioxidants found in chocolate, therefore dark chocolate is a better option for people who want to enjoy the health benefits of chocolate. Also, if you want to make the most of the flavonoids contained in your chocolate bar, wash it down with green or black tea, or even black coffee, not milk.

Chocolate, like all other sweets, contain a lot of calories, so nobody will advise you to lower your daily intake of other healthy foods in order to eat more chocolate; instead, you may decide to cut down on crisps, biscuits and other high calorie snacks and replace some of those with dark chocolate.

In order to benefit of the health benefits of chocolate, you must remember that, although chocolate may be high in antioxidants that can reduce the risks of cancer and heart disease, it also contains very high amounts of calories, so if you decide to use chocolate as a remedy against those ailments, do it wisely and keep in mind that the same health benefits are also found in other foods that have a much lower calorie content.