Think milk chocolate will do the trick? Sorry. It just doesn’t have the same benefits. Dark chocolate contains about two to three times the amount of cacao as milk chocolate, and has healthier fatty acids.
You’ll also get less sugar when you eat dark chocolate, which is important because you don’t want something that’s just going to make you crave more sugar.
1. Dark Chocolate For Weight Loss
2. Dark Chocolate Makes You Look Younger
Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants (about 8 times as more than strawberries) which helps protect your skin from sun damage but…
This does not mean you can get away with not putting on any sunscreen
3. Chocolate the Anti-depressant
Chocolate makes your body release the 'feel good' hormones endorphins & serotonin and believe it or not A study out of the University of Sussex found chocolate to be better than kissing!
4. Dark Chocolate Good For Teeth
Chocolate contains theobromine which helps prevent tooth decay by killing the bacteria that causes tooth decay.
5. Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure
Chocolate is full of flavanols that improves blood vessel flexibility. The Kuna Indians who are known to have low blood pressure and who are also virtually free of heart disease drink lots of unprocessed chocolate as part of their diets.
6. Dark Chocolate to Live Longer?
There's no concrete evidence to support this but Jeanne Louise Calment who is the world's longest lived person Lived to be 122 years old and she ate 2½ pounds of dark chocolate per week but…
Top 5 Chocolate Myths and Facts
1. Myth: Chocolate is an aphrodisiac
Fact: Studies have revealed that the average person has the same neurological response to chocolate as they do to seeing photos of a person they are in love win.
Chocolate stimulates the release of the chemicals phenylethylamine (PEA) and anandamide in the brain. PEA increases the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine within the brain, and is found to naturally surge throughout the brain during orgasm.
Anandamide actives the cannabinoids receptors found throughout the brain which have been shown to heighten sensitivity and create overall feelings of well-being.
2. Myth: Chocolate causes acne
Fact: This is a myth that your parents have probably been telling you since you're a prepubescent teen. Yet, a number of different studies have found that there is in fact no direct link between acne and chocolate (or any other food for that matter).
The fact is, everyone reacts to foods they put into their body differently. If you stop eating chocolate for 2-4 weeks and see no change in your degree of acne there is absolutely no reason to remove this food from your diet.
3. Myth: Chocolate is high in caffeine
Fact: This simply isn't true.
An average serving of chocolate actually has about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of decaffeinated coffee. While it may give you a short rush of energy, it shouldn't be looked to as a source of the sustained energy provided by caffeine.
4. Myth: Chocolate has no nutritional value
Fact: Recent studies of dark chocolates have found that the actually contain a relatively powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants play a very important role in removing free radicals from your body (molecules found throughout the body that can damage various structures, such as DNA, by stripping electrons from them).
Chocolate is also a solid source of iron, copper, zinc, and magnesium, which are all minerals your body needs to function properly.
5. Myth: Chocolate is bad for your cholesterol levels
Fact: Actually, a study conducted in 1988 by David Kritchevsky, Ph.D has shown that, despite it's high percentage of saturated fat, chocolate actually does not have a negative impact on your overall cholesterol levels.
This study was the result of a thirty year-long longitudinal study conducted at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania when it was discovered that the saturated fats found in cocoa butter behave different than other, more common, saturated fats.