Natural Health Buzz

Dark Chocolate Antioxidant Properties And Your Healths

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Wouldn’t it be great to get better heart health by eating candy instead of pills your doctor prescribes?

While this isn’t likely there really is evidence that dark chocolate antioxidant properties do help to lower blood pressure - slightly. While this might sound great to those chocoholics out there, there are some caveats to this and it’s no excuse to go on a chocolate eating binge as the extra calories can put on pounds that aren’t good for you at all!

When we talk about chocolate being good for you we are specifically talking about dark chocolate. Not milk chocolate. Not white chocolate. Dark chocolate that has at least 70% cocoa is what you will benefit from. Why is this? It all boils down to the cocoa phenols that are in the cocoa used to make the chocolate. Turns out these can lower blood pressure.

When eating dark chocolate for it’s antioxidant and health properties, remember darker is better. Plus, you don’t want to gorge yourself on chocolate, if you eat 1 candy bar a day find out how many calories it has and balance this by eliminating the equal amount of calories from your diet elsewhere. That way you won’t gain unnecessary weight that might counteract the healthy benefits of the chocolate. But you probably don’t even have to eat a whole bar - just 1 oz of dark chocolate has twice the healthiness of red wine and other chocolates. Oh, and another thing, don’t wash it down with milk as this has been shown to counteract the healthy effects of the dark chocolate.

Just an ounce of dark chocolate a day can increase good cholesterol and keep bad cholesterol from oxidizing and thus forming plaque in the arteries. It has been shown in studies to lower blood pressure by 5 points and also to increase blood flow to the heart as well as decrease the risk of blood clots.

If you want to benefit from the dark chocolate antioxidant activity then you could consider adding ½ of a bar to your daily eating habits. Just be sure you eat a bit less of something else. Of course, chocolate shouldn’t be used as a substitute for eating a healthy diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains. When shopping for dark chocolate try to buy only organic brands - those with the highest levels of cocoa are best as this is where the healthy antioxidant phenols are. Shoot for at least 70% cocoa - the endangered species brand with blueberries shown on the right side of this page are excellent - I eat them all the time plus they have the added benefit of healthy blueberries!

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Endangered Species The Sea Turtle Bars Dark Chocolate with Blueberries -- 12/Box