Dark chocolate, created from natural cocoa beans, has been recommended for consumption even up to three times a day. This is because the cocoa bean is the food with the highest levels of antioxidants ever, which protect the body from oxidative stress involved with aging. Other foods, such as red wine, tea, and select few fruits and vegetables also offer similar health benefits, but cocoa still tops them all when it comes to the sheer number of antioxidants. These antioxidant compounds are called flavanols, which presumably give dark chocolate its health benefits.
Ironically, flavanols actually taste very bitter, so many companies that make candy bars take out most of the flavanols to make the chocolate taste better. This obviously strips the chocolate of most of its health benefits. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing which candy bar is healthiest, as companies do not indicate how many flavanols are left in the final product. This is why buying dark chocolate candy bars simply to get the health effects may not work.
Also keep in mind that milk chocolate does not render the same health perks. The darker the chocolate, the more flavonoids containing flavanols there are, meaning that milk chocolate offers fewer health benefits than dark chocolate. Clearly this indicates that white chocolate offers even fewer; in fact, it contains no flavonoids.
The best way to take advantage of the health benefits offered in dark chocolate is to buy the darkest chocolate available with the least amount of added ingredients, perhaps from a health food store. Another option is to buy one of the recent products in which dark chocolate is infused with the a? berry, an antioxidant that helps reduce heart and vascular disease. Dark chocolate and a? go together well because both have a magnitude of antioxidants, and aça?elps flavanol-filled dark chocolate taste delicious.
Source : articlesbase
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