Monday 11 May 2015

9 Great Boosts For Your Health From Dark Chocolate

By Justin French


1. Do you have a family history of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, Diabetes or stroke? Well recent studies have shown a significant decrease in the risk of contracting them if dark chocolate is regularly eaten.

2. Thickening of the blood can lead to clots which, in turn, can lead to stroke. However, it seems that the bacteria in your gut can break down dark chocolate into ant-inflammatory compounds which thin the blood lessening the chances of stroke.

3. A report summarizing the results of 20 different studies on the benefits of dark chocolate, showed that participants blood pressure was lowered by some 3 to 4 points after regularly eating dark chocolate.

4. A very good improvement in blood flow was observed even in young, healthy men who were given a small square of 70% dark chocolate every day for a month. The flow increase ranged from 14% to 23%.

5. Eating dark chocolate can increase the HDL or good cholesterol in your blood, thus lowering any bad cholesterol (LDL).

6. The benefits of eating dark chocolate seem endless! Diabetics were shown in one recent study to obtain improved insulin sensitivity, further, it showed the same insulin sensitivity improvement in non-diabetics too.

7. Imagine a candy that could improve the state of your teeth! Well a substance in dark chocolate called Theobromine has been shown to harden tooth enamel.

8. Increased protection from sun damage to your skin could also be experienced if you regularly ate dark chocolate.

9. Feel good hormones are released by the brain when you have dark chocolate. This is due to the chemical phenylethylamine being stimulated on digestion of dark chocolate.

Advice On Choosing Chocolate

Do Buy clearly labelled 70% or higher dark chocolate. This was the strength used in the above studies. If you don't mind the taste, 80% or even 90% is even better. Don't buy the milky, sweet varieties. This is because the flavonols, which are responsible for the above benefits, have been stripped out of the milky, sweet chocolate to make way for the sweeter taste.




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