Is Chocolate Really be Good for You?

I've always been worried about my afinity for Chocolate. Partly because I always thought that it was just women that had the chocolate cravings (without any sexist connotations there, just stating my observation!) but also because of the health implications involved with chomping on several bars a day. I'm a bit fanatical about my teeth you see, anything with vast amounts of sugar in are avoided if possible - or if I've already reached my quota for the week. Yes, maybe I do think about this a little too much! Thinking about the health issue, I researched it a bit and was quite enthusiastic about one of the outcomes...chocolate with health benefits.

I must admit, this might not be something new to most people but it is definitely new to me. I could delve into detail about the process of fermenting the seeds of the caocao tree followed by raosting them and grinding them into a liquid form called 'chocolate liquor' and then combining it with sugar and milk to form milk chocolate...but I won't for the sake of this article. Instead, I'm going to focus on the health benefits that are not so well publicised.

Red wine, whiskey and chocolate...all have the added benefit of improving you circulation. Dark chocolate in particular is the best chocolate for this as it possesses a powerful antioxidant that has an effect on reducting blood pressure. I was once told that a small piece of dark chocolate, rich in cocoa every day will help your heart and blood pressure. I can honestly say that I've taken this advice and have been a regular consumer of dark chocolate. Despite not measuring my blood pressure as medical proof I have the strong belief that it does actually work.

The sadest part is that normal milk chocolate does not have this benefit. I suppose the day that milk chocolate has medical benefits is the day that chocolate manufacturers all buy themselves new mansions! Until that day, we can at least enjoy the benefits of dark chocolate and reduce the risk of a heart attack. My tastes have diversified to actually enjoy dark chocolate now as opposed to when I used to eat it quickly with the belief that it was good for me.

Source : articlesbase