There can never be too much of chocolate, especially dark chocolate. If you happen to love milk chocolate and cannot get over it, then you may not particularly find dark chocolate to be delicious. However, no one can deny that the dark variety is much healthier and beneficial for your body,
In fact, the high concentration of cacao in dark chocolate makes it a superfood as compared to regular, sweetened chocolate. If you do not want to give up on the taste of chocolate but also want to remain healthy, then dark chocolate is the way to go.
Antioxidants and nutrients like magnesium, copper, potassium and zinc enrich dark chocolate.
Switching to dark chocolate will have the following benefits:
1. Fight Free Radicals
Dark chocolate has the potential of fighting all the free radicals that can make you fall sick. These free radicals are created when there is an imbalance in the compounds produced by the cells of your body. The antioxidants in dark chocolate can help neutralize the free radicals and hence prevent you from being ill.
Dark chocolate has vitamins, phytochemicals and minerals along with the two different antioxidant groups called flavonoids and polyphenols. When you are shopping, choose the chocolate bar that has the highest percentage of cocoa if you want to buy the healthiest one.
2. Enhance Your Cardiovascular Health
Dark chocolate has a kind of flavonoid called flavanols which is known to improve the functioning of the heart and improve the overall heart health by reducing blood pressure. Moreover, having dark chocolate also increases your circulation of blood to the brain and the heart. If you are still not convinced about having dark chocolates, then let us tell you that flavanols are able to make blood platelets less sticky, and that can help eliminate any risk of blood clots or strokes.
According to a study in the International Journal of Cardiology, the intake of flavonoid-rich dark chocolate can improve people’s health.
3. Helps Prevent Cancer
Cancer is one of the most life-threatening diseases in the world right now, and if something helps you ward off cancer, then you should definitely have more of it. Having dark chocolate can potentially help prevent cancer, and that can be extremely beneficial. Although this is still under research, the cancer protective properties that cocoa makes it highly likely.
4. Improves the Functioning of the Brain
Yes. Dark chocolate helping your brain function better sounds too good to be true. However, it is! And ,you can really have itif you want to increase your ability to focus and give your memory a boost. When the flavanol-rich cocoa enters your body, it ends up increasing the blood supply to the cerebral grey matter which helps the brain function more efficiently. Conditions like dementia and strokes are associated with lesser blood flow.
5. Better Dental Health
Are you afraid of Doctors? What better option than a Chocolate then?
Yes, we are not kidding. If you tend to suffer from tooth problems very often, then you should have dark chocolate with a very high percentage of cocoa. The theobromine that can be found in dark chocolate is capable of hardening your tooth enamel and hence, preventing cavities.
6. Keep Cholesterol Under Check
Dark chocolate has cocoa butter which means that it contains oleic acid along with stearic and palmitic acids. The cocoa polyphenols can help keep your cholesterol levels in check. Continued consumption o dark chocolate can increase the amount of HDL or good cholesterol in your body.
We know that you did not need another reason to binge-eat chocolate, but here you go. As long as you ditch the sweetened milk bars and go for dark chocolate, you will actually be doing yourself a favor.