Eat Chocolate for Your Good Health

Chocolate lovers everywhere can rejoice as more and more medical studies are discovering that chocolate can do the heart well. Some studies even suggest that chocolate is every bit as effective as aspirin in both its ability to decrease blood clots as well as to prevent heart attacks from occurring. It is dark chocolate however and not milk chocolate that has shown to be beneficial to health. In fact for the past 20 years it has long been recognized by scientists that dark chocolate is rich in a chemical known as flavonoid and it is this ingredient that is instrumental in lowering blood pressure as well as increasing blood flow from the heart to the brain. Flavonoids contain a compound known as epicatechin and this accounts for its ability to prevent cholesterol from building up in the blood vessels and also helps to decrease the responses from the immune system that can then lead to the clogging of arteries.

Early studies into the benefits of dark chocolate showed that a great deal would have to be consumed daily to reap benefits to the heart but now researchers say that a few small pieces of dark chocolate (which could equal a few squares from a chocolate bar) are just fine when it comes to heart health. Due to the process it is put through when it is made, dark chocolate has much higher levels of flavonoids in it than does milk chocolate or any other form of chocolate.

Looking further into this, researchers have discovered that it is the chemical found in the cocoa bean that has a "biochemical effect" that strikingly resembles the effect that aspirin has in decreasing the clumping of platelets in the blood that can prove deadly if a clot forms and then narrows or even worse, completely blocks a blood vessel, leading to a heart attack Some studies suggest that to effectively get the beneficial "heart healthy" effects of eating dark chocolate it is advisable to consume two tablespoons of dark chocolate on a daily basis. The best kind would be the purest form such as for example, dried extract of roasted cocoa beans. If that is not for you then a small bar of chocolate in the area of 1.6 ounces is another to keep your heart and your blood vessels functioning at their optimum best. One example of a dark chocolate bar chocked full of high-cocoa content, which means it is loaded with flavonoids, is the Dove Dark Chocolate bar.

It cannot be emphasized enough. All chocolate is not the exact same and therefore not all equally good for your heart. Dark chocolate contains more cocoa that any other form of chocolate. Before this revelation about chocolate was discovered, chocolate manufacturers used to destroy over half of the flavonoids in the cocoa during the processing stages. Today companies are wiser about such things and have devised new methods such that dark chocolate now contains 95 percent of its original flavonoids.

While it is true that flavonoids can be found in other foods such as blueberries, black tea, green tea and red wine, they are much more plentiful in dark chocolate. Be aware however that chocolate may have its good side but it is still loaded with fat and sugar and therefore must be eaten sparingly.