Dark, delicious and good for your health
A new study about the somehow controversial effects of black chocolate on human health adds new mounting evidence that links black chocolate with health benefits.
The study
The study was financed by the University Hospital in Cologne and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on 5 july 2007, suggests that a tiny amount of dark chocolate consumed on a daily basis lowers blood pressure.
The volunteers for the study consumed six grams of dark chocolate per day, for almost five months.
The effects
The results of this experiment indicated that the people who ate dark chocolate ended up with lower blood pressure readings that the ones who ate white chocolate.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Dirk Taubert, said that the blood pressure reductions with dark chocolate were small but still substantial enough to reduce cardiovascular disease risks.
In case you’re wondering “how much chocolate is six grams?”, the answer is one or one and a half squares.
More benefits
Other beneficial effects of dark chocolate:
- eating chocolate releases endorphins in the brain, which act as pain-relievers,
- eating chocolate reduces stress. The sugar in chocolate may reduce stress and have a calming and pain relieving effect,
- eating chocolate does not trigger migraine headaches.
Too bad I don’t live in the USA to be able to order some gourmet dark chocolate
Are you a regular consumer of dark chocolate? If so, do you feel any improvements in your health (or mood) that can be linked to it? Let us know in the comments.
If you're new here and have found useful information, please subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for free Email updates. There are daily updates and you should stay tuned. Thanks for visiting!
or
Subscribe to e-mail updates:
I really like dark chocolate, but unfortunately I think I would eat more than my daily allowance if I kept it around for health purposes.
That’s definately a problem for some…
But really, it’s not that hard to overcome.
It may take some effort to keep yourself from eating the whole chocolate at once, but the health benefits are definately worth it!
It’s sad toblerone is not under the dark chocolate category. Dark chocolates are great but lack… sweetness. But if it is healthy then now we have every excuse to have a choc dose.
You could eat 1/2 sqare of dark chocolate and then 1 square of white chocolate.
This way you enjoy the health benefits of dark chocolate without completely giving up the sweet taste of Toblerone.