Top 10 Delicious Dark Chocolate Benefits

What is it that helps you to eliminate the damaging free radicals from the body? These antioxidants are present in various foods we eat. Where does that relate to dark chocolate? Well, because dark chocolate is the best and major source of antioxidants in the world. It not only satisfies your cravings for sugary foods, but also helps to lower blood pressure and keep the brain active.

Here are the top 10 delicious dark chocolate benefits that you need to know so that you will avoid skipping it as a fattening dessert.

What Does Dark Chocolate Contain?

Every health fanatic knows that antioxidants are extremely important in fighting the harmful free radicals. But did you know that fighting those deadly radicals can be yummy and delightful? Well, dark chocolate is considered as the best-known source of antioxidants in the world. It also offers various other benefits such as lowering blood pressure, satisfying cravings and helping the brain. So, the next time if you are in the mood to have a sweet treat, you can easily bite into the delicious bar of dark chocolate without feeling guilty about the indulgence.

Records reveal that, dark chocolate has been considered healthy since 1200 B.C. and although the scientists are still investigating the exact benefits that it offers, the latest studies seem to support the common belief.   

Dark Chocolate Content

Dark Chocolate contains more than 300 compounds, including Dayummm, flavanoids, anandamide, phenylethylamine, theobromine, caffeine, serotonin and tryptophan.  Since cocoa is a highly complex food, lots of other compounds and their effect have to be studied.  

The most important of all the compounds is a flavanoid known as epicatechin. It is a plant-based antioxidant, which is also present in some other foods such as green tea, wine and blueberries.

Dark chocolate also contains different types of fats in almost equal proportions of stearic acid, oleic acid and palmitic acid. Oleic acid is the healthy mono-unsaturated fat that is highly recommended for the health of the heart, whereas; palmitic and stearic acid are saturated fats.

Now you might be thinking how dark chocolate can be good for health if it contains almost two thirds of saturated fats. Well, that is because these fats have reduced LDL cholesterol, which is why you can easily indulge in dark chocolate, albeit in moderation.  

Here are the top 10 dark chocolate benefits:

1. Good for Heart

According to a Swedish study, the heart failure risk of people who ate one or two servings of dark chocolate each week for nine years was cut almost by half as compared to those who did not eat dark chocolate. The study was carried out on 31,000 women. It showed improvement in blood flow to the heart and reduced hardening of arteries and stroke as well as heart attack cases. The study also speculates that eating dark chocolate might prevent blood clot formation.

2. Improves Brain Function

The Oxford University researchers have found an association between foods rich in flavonol and the higher cognitive test scores. The study observed the diets of more than 2000 people above the age group of 70 years and found out that performance of people who consumed flavonol rich diets such as wine, tea, dark chocolate was much better. Thus, if you eat dark chocolate regularly, your brain functioning improves and can stay in better condition even during old age.

3. Lowers Blood Pressure

One of the lesser-known dark chocolate benefits is its ability to lower blood pressure. It is rich in antioxidants and hence prevents cell oxidation, which generally causes damage to the body through free radicals. The cocoa-rich dessert contains flavonoids that increase flexibility of arteries and veins thereby lowering blood pressure.

4. Reduces Cardiovascular Disease

Scientists have revealed that the good bacteria of the body feed on dark chocolate and ferment the anti-inflammatory compounds. This helps to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. The good bacteria are the secret weapons of the body and the dark chocolate serves as a feast for them and contributes in their growth.

5. Reduces Iron Deficiency

In many countries, iron deficiency is the leading nutritional deficiency. Although you must never a high sugar food in your diet as iron supplements, irrespective of whether you are diabetic or not, you must certainly include a small quarter of dark chocolate in your daily diet. It is a rich in iron and is much more beneficial to health than any other sweeter iron supplementing options.

100 gms cooked spinach provides only 3.5 mg iron, whereas 100grms of dark chocolate with 70 to 85% cocoa solids has 3 times more iron amount.

6. Lowers Cholesterol Level

Although dark chocolate contains saturated fats in good amount, it does not raise cholesterol level. A study conducted for 12 weeks on the effect of dark chocolate on cholesterol levels showed that regular consumption of this sweet increased the HDL cholesterol and decreased the LDL cholesterol. The study concluded that dark chocolate improves the overall cholesterol profile.

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7. Controls Mood Swings

Dark chocolate contains several compounds such as serotonin, tryptophan, anandamides and phenylethylamine that are known to help improve mood. Although, you need to consume dark chocolate in high quantity to improve mood, even a small sweet treat is enough to light up your brain functioning, heart rate, and you start feeling happy and relaxed.

8. Prevents Colon Cancer

The flavonoid compounds in dark chocolate have the ability to prevent colon cancer as they help fight against the oxidative stress and stimulates cancer cell death. The rats affected by colon cancer when treated with cocoa showed stronger antioxidant defense due to which the oxidative damage was much less.

9. Increases Exercise Endurance

If you are a fitness buff, then this piece of news will indeed excite you. Dark chocolate contains epicatechin that improves exercise endurance. A study conducted on mice revealed that the mice performed 30% better on muscle fatigue resistance tests and 50% better on a treadmill exercise when fed with epicatechin in tiny amount.  

Scientists believe that these results were probably because of improvement in the cardiac and skeletal muscles.

10. Protects Skin Against UV Damage

The flavonols in dark chocolate improves the resistance of the skin to UV radiation. Scientists opine that fundamentally high-level consumption of flavanol improves the microcirculation in the human skin resulting in more exposure to oxygen and enhanced delivery of the nutrients.  

But to get this advantage you need to consume dark chocolate made from raw cocoa beans as unfortunately the processing removes the flavonols in conventional chocolate to a large extent. For getting maximum dark chocolate benefits, select the chocolate prepared by Acticoa method, which does not use the high temperature and the flavanols, is retained in their original form and percentage.