Reasons to Eat Chocolate

I love chocolate. It's the one thing I can't seem to stop treating myself to when I'm on a diet and, according to Forrest Gump, that's what life is! In a world where obesity is such a stigma, I believe chocolate to be highly misunderstood. Despite the fact that chocolate does have a high calorie count, there are several reasons to eat it anyway! Specifically, studies have suggested chocolate, especially dark chocolate, can do good things for your health. So, before you skip that chocolate truffle, you may want to consider these points. It's important to know about the foods we love to eat.

Chocolate decreases the risk of heart attacks - John Hopkins University of Medicine did a study on this and found that by eating small amounts of dark chocolate, you can lower your risk of heart attack by up to 50%. That's insane. The study concluded that your blood will actually clot at a slower rate when you eat chocolate. Blood clots are a major contributor to heart attacks.

Chocolate puts you in a better mood - Chocolate contains ingredients that replace serotonin levels in the brain. Without getting too technical, serotonin is the stuff in your brain that makes you happy. A decrease in the level of serotonin can put you in a crabby mood. So men, it might be a good idea to have a secret stash of chocolate on hand to feed your women during "that time of the month." It's true! Chocolate does relieve symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. It also can put you into that "falling in love" mood.

Chocolate enhances blood flow to your brain - Research done at the University of Nottingham found that drinking cocoa with flavanols (an active ingredient in dark chocolate) will improve blood flow for about 2-3 hours to key parts of the brain. Basically, it makes you think better. So, college students, start packing your Hershey's Special Dark in your backpack the morning of an exam!

Chocolate reduces blood pressure - Remember flavanols? They slow down blood clotting and help balance blood pressure. The New York times says that chocolate is almost as effective in lowering blood pressure as that of common drugs used for reducing blood pressure. But, before you get all excited and quit taking your medication, remember I'm not a doctor and I've never heard of one prescribing chocolate either. You can read the article here.

Chocolate is yummy - Of course, this is my favorite reason to eat chocolate! Chocolate tastes good and isn't it true that foods that taste good just plain make you feel good? My personal advice is you shouldn't deprive yourself of small amounts of food that you enjoy.

It may have come as a shock that chocolate, dark chocolates especially, can be a remedy to the very illnesses that they cause. So, go ahead and eat that piece of "sinful" chocolate!