When you’re on a diet, you tend to stay away from sweets. Foods high in calories and high in fat, such as chocolate, are not healthy choices when consumed in large quantities. But what if chocolate were actually good for you? Overindulging in any food is detrimental to your health, but partaking in a small piece of chocolate on a regular basis is healthy.
Before you run to the store and load up on chocolate bars, it’s important to note that the health benefits described in this article are consistent with dark chocolate only. Dark chocolate contains antioxidants, which can help prevent heart disease. It’s good for the heart because it can both lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
In addition to hearth health, eating dark chocolate can be beneficial for other reasons. Not only does dark chocolate taste amazing, but also, have you ever noticed how happy you feel when you eat chocolate? Consuming chocolate actually gets your endorphins moving. Serotonin is also found in dark chocolate, which can cause a rush of good feelings as well. Taking a bite of dark chocolate can also be a bit like taking of swig of strong coffee because of the caffeine in it.
Skeptics may still argue that chocolate can’t be good for your because of the fat content. Although there is fat in chocolate, research has shown that only one-third of that fat is bad for you. The other two-thirds of fat are oleic and stearic acids. Oleic acids are healthy fats and stearic acids have not been proven to be harmful to your health.
As long as you don’t eat chocolate excessively, gobbling up a hunk of dark chocolate here and there won’t hurt you.