Yummy Chocolates for Health!
Gift your loved ones a chocolate and surprise them. Or if you don’t want to share with anyone eat them all by yourself. Recent studies have proved that it has many health benefits.
It’s not only my love for chocolates that makes me eat them but also its health benefits that keeps me addicted towards it. Chocolate tastes good, smells good and feels splendid when it melts in your mouth.
Antioxidants such as Flavonoids are particularly abundant in Cocoa, the seeds of the Cocoa tree fruit. Fermenting, drying and roasting cocoa beans yields cocoa powder, which is used to make chocolates.
So which one is your favourite? Dark or White Chocolate? If your favourite one is not dark chocolate and if it is white, it may be a better source of calories and sugar than of beneficial flavonoids.
Dark Chocolates contain 45% to 80% greater cocoa solids than in Milk chocolates.
Health Benefits Of Dark Chocolates:
Reduces the risk of Heart Diseases
You could be doing your heart a favour if you eat a small piece of dark chocolate, quiet regularly.
Eating Dark Chocolates have been proven beneficial for your Heart since they increase the HDL (Good Cholesterol) levels and lower the LDL (Bad Cholesterol) levels. It can also reduce insulin resistance which is a common risk factor for many diseases like Diabetes and Heart diseases.
Flavonoids in cocoa have been shown to help lower blood pressure, improve blood flow to the brain and heart, prevent blood clots and fight cell damage.
Rich in Antioxidants
These dark chocolates function as antioxidants which are loaded with organic compounds like Polyphenols, Flavanols and Catechins. Antioxidants are substances that has the capacity to protect your body from free radical damage that can occur from exposure to certain chemicals, environmental pollution, smoking, radiation and also as a result of normal metabolism.
Good for your skin
Next time when you are planning to go out on a sunny beach for long hours load your bag with lots of them since they are found to improve your blood flow to the skin, increase the skin density and hydration. It can also protect you from the damage caused by the sun since it contains the flavonols from cocoa.
Improves Brain Functioning
Within a very short period of time, it improves the cognitive functioning of the brain due to the presence of Theobromine and Caffeine in cocoa.
Chocolate Boosts up your Mood
Laughter might be the best medicine but sometimes you need a dose of chocolate too since it increases the levels of serotonin in the brain, a neuro transmitter which is responsible for better mood, sleep and reduction of stress and anxiety. Dopamine is also released into the brain when you eat chocolate and that is the reason why most of us prefer to have chocolates in stressful situations.
Chocolate Cravings
Nine out of ten people like Chocolates and the 10 th person always lies! Most of us crave for chocolates some time or the other. A strong craving for the chocolates actually indicate that you have a deficiency of Magnesium. Dark chocolates are rich in Magnesium but it does not mean that it is the richest source.
Just before monthly periods women experience a drop in the levels of Hormones like Oestrogen, Cortisol and Serotonin which makes them irritable or short-tempered. During this time, women have a decreased production of serotonin in the brain which makes them specifically crave for Chocolate (Having chocolate increases the levels of Serotonin) It is our body’s way of communication to get more of them.
But remember that these tasty ones contain calories too and the dark chocolates are typically considered to be the healthiest type due to its low amount of sugar per serving. Eating a lot of them could cause weight gain, mind the quantity of how much you are consuming.
