Chocolate - the ultimate comfort food. The creamy texture and delicious sweet flavor can make almost any problem seem like a distant memory. All the wonderful treats you can make from chocolate! From chocolate pie to chocolate mousse and everything in between, chocolate is a treat from heaven.But there is controversy surrounding chocolate. Is it healthy or unhealthy? Good for you or the worst thing you could put in your mouth? These are the questions that many people are asking. So do we enjoy chocolate as always or put it in the pantry never to be touched again?
Well, science has spoken and their findings are favorable for chocolate. The dark variety that is. When you eat chocolate that is as close to the natural state as possible, you are getting a wide variety of health benefits. Chocolate is a plant based food so it carries a lot of the same nutrients and healthy properties that you find in fruits and vegetables. The antioxidants that are found in dark chocolate are similar to what you find in dark fruits such as blueberries. These antioxidants help to fight free radicals in your body, which can cause cellular damage.
Chocolate has also been found to be a heart healthy treat. The flavonoids found in chocolate help to keep the walls of blood vessels flexible and elastic. These flavonoids also help to keep fat from blocking arteries. When fat is blocking the flow of blood to the heart you are at a greater risk for a heart attack. Dark chocolate also helps to lower blood pressure and can increase the levels of good cholesterol in your body as well.
But what about the bad in chocolate? The bad chocolate is chocolate that has been heavily processed and altered. That milk chocolate candy bar you love so much? That is the kind of chocolate that is not good for you. With all the additives like milk, sugar, and chemicals, milk chocolate is too far from the original dark variety to have any real health benefits at all. In fact, because milk chocolate is so full of sugar and fat you will gain weight and have an increased risk of heart and other health problems.
Healthy dark chocolate is the type you want to enjoy as a treat. The only people who should stay away from chocolate are the people who are prone to migraine headaches, because chocolate has been shown to be a trigger.
Chocolate is both good and bad depending on the variety you chose. Make the choice to eat rich, dark chocolate that has been processed very little and you will reap all the health benefits of this delicious treat.