Benefits of Eating Dark Chocolate!

In this blog we'll discuss some of the important health benefits of dark chocolate and how to choose the right dark chocolate for you!

Dark Chocolate a powerful antioxidant

Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Did you know that consuming dark chocolate (1 bar per week) can help lower your blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and improve your brain function?  Dark chocolate contains compounds that have antioxidant properties, these compounds include: polyphenols, flavanols and catechins. Polyphenols have known antioxidant properties and help prevent blood clots, reduce our blood sugar levels and lower the risk of heart disease.  They have also been found to improve cognitive function and digestion.  Flavanols have shown the ability to improve blood flow in our arteries and reduce blood pressure for certain people, although the latter benefit is not universal to everyone.   

Choosing the Right Chocolate

Making the right chocolate selection is important to achieving all the benefits mentioned above. When you purchase dark chocolate look for the following things:

1. Select dark chocolate that contains at least 80%-85% cacao, otherwise the chocolate often contains higher sugar content, which makes it more enjoyable to eat however it reduces its effectiveness.  

2. Buy organic dark chocolate to ensure what you are consuming does not contain pesticides or other impurities that could reduce the health benefits. 

3. Unfortunately when you pick chocolate it must be dark chocolate, it cannot be white chocolate or milk chocolate. While both of these may taste better, they do not have the same antioxidant characteristics as dark chocolate.

4. Choose dark chocolate produced with the fewest ingredients possible, avoid any chocolate with milk or other dairy substitutes. Also avoid brands with higher sugar content, lecithin or anything that includes trans fats.

5. Avoid chocolate that has been dutch processed, chocolate that is dutch processed has reduced flavanols as a result they have lower antioxidant properties.

6. Select dark chocolate that is fair trade and ethically produced.