Chocolate health benefits

Recent research has proved that chocolate has beneficial effects on human health, especially dark chocolate. Chocolate contains flavonoids and antioxidants, just like red wine, tea and fruit and vegetables. Therefore, a moderate amount of dark chocolate has been proved to be good for you.

In particular, chocolate has beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and it can lower blood pressure. However, it is still a food rich in calories and its intake should be limited.

Healthiest types of chocolate

Not every type of chocolate is good for you in the same way. Dark chocolate has more antioxidants than milk chocolate, because of its higher content in cocoa solids. Also, dark chocolate has fewer calories than milk chocolate and therefore it is healthier. Dark chocolate has less sugar then milk chocolate and it has less saturated fat, which in milk chocolate are abundant because of the presence of milk. The only saturated fat present in dark chocolate is stearic acid, which forms a large part of cocoa butter. However, it has been proved that stearic acid does not increase LDL levels in the blood. For an even healthier chocolate, try dark vegan chocolate, where milk proteins have been replaced with soy lecithin.

In choosing cocoa powder it is better to choose raw cocoa powder rather then cocoa powder treated with alkali (also called Dutch cocoa). The reason is that alkali destroys a lot of good antioxidants, which are present in cocoa.

Psychological benefits of chocolate

In addition to physical benefits, we all know that chocolate has psychological benefits. We know how pleasant it is, because it melts in your mouth. This happens because chocolate melts exactly just below body temperature. Scientists have discovered that chocolate stimulates the production of serotonin in the brain, which is one of the chemical compounds that create the feeling of pleasure in our minds.

Chocolate physiological effects – warning: keep it away from your pets

While chocolate can have physical and/or psychological benefits on humans, it is poisonous for animals, including dogs, cats and other mammals and birds. This is due to a stimulating substance called theobromina, found in cocoa. While theobromina is harmless for us it can cause seizures, heart attacks, internal bleeding and even lead to death in animals. Animals cannot metabolise and eliminate theobromina from their bodies; therefore chocolate ingestion for animals can be fatal. Dark chocolate is more dangerous because it contains more theobromina than milk chocolate. Every product containing cocoa is dangerous for animals, including things like chocolate ice cream
and chocolate biscuits.