Eating chocolate is good for your health: Well chosen and consumed in moderation, chocolate has particularly interesting nutritional qualities. Moderate chocolate consumption is not considered bad for health. Studies on chocolate have rather demonstrated the benefits of a reasonable consumption of dark chocolate, because of its content of flavonoids.



The virtues of chocolate for health are very diverse and have been the subject of many serious scientific studies. Regular and moderate consumption of dark chocolate can bring many benefits.

Chocolate makes you lose weight!

Spanish researchers will publish in the scientific journal Nutrition an article according to which European teenagers who eat 1.3 kg of chocolate per month (42.6 g per day) are thinner than those who eat less.

That's why I ask you the question with anxiety: do you eat enough chocolate, dear reader ??

Because not only chocolate would avoid growing, but we know for a long time that it contains desflavonol, compounds of the family of polyphenols which, consumed in important quantity, improve the sight and make more intelligent !! 
The effect would be visible from daily consumption of 35 grams of dark chocolate, containing 720 milligrams of the flavonol.


Chocolate is also good for the heart

In addition, if you eat at least 10g per day of flavonol-rich dark chocolate, your blood vessels will expand better (vasodilatation). The effect is felt after 12 weeks of consumption.

You should know that good vasodilation is a sign of good arterial health: you will have less risk of heart problems.

The effect of chocolate is so strong that European experts from EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) have even authorized manufacturers to include this "health claim" on foods containing cocoa:


Chocolate reduces inflammation

According to one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted in Europe (Moli-Sani Project), dark chocolate has an anti-inflammatory effect, which also reduces the risk of heart disease.

Chronic inflammation in the body increases the risk of atherosclerosis.

The researchers found that people who eat regular and moderately dark chocolate have a significantly reduced level of C-reactive protein in the blood. C-reactive proteins are an important marker of the level of inflammation.

In this study, people who ate dark chocolate experienced a reduction in C-reactive protein levels of 17%, enough to reduce the risk of heart disease by a third in women and a quarter in men.


Anti-depressant effect

Of course, the chocolate also gives morale. You probably did not need me to call him back!

Eating chocolate is good, it's a pleasure, and it's certainly the reason for its success, which has not stopped in millennia. Remains of cocoa were found on 2,600-year-old Mayan dishes in northern Belize.

But the thing would also have been scientifically proven in 2009: in a study on Nestlé's "Dark Chocolate" (74% cocoa), 40 grams of chocolate a day for two weeks decreased the level of the stress hormone, cortisol, at the participants. This would explain the effects of chocolate to reduce anxiety. Note that I write conditional because this study was done by Nestlé.


Which chocolate to choose?

The best chocolate for health is the one that is very rich in cocoa, because not only does it contain more flavonols, but it also contains less sugar. If possible choose chocolate with 70% cocoa. But 60% is already good, and even milk chocolate still contains flavonols.

On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary to avoid white chocolate, which does not contain cocoa but cocoa fat, also called, to make prettier, cocoa butter, or worse, fat of milk.

White chocolate is a low-end industrial by-product, invented by Nestlé in the 1930s to use surplus cocoa butter and now surplus dairy fats, which are still cheaper.

Targeted children's advertising campaigns, thanks to Galak's nice dolphin, allowed Nestlé to sell its stocks and make nice profits, but unfortunately at the expense of small children's health.

So if you have children, try to teach them how to appreciate good dark chocolate.

It's harder at first, but it's good for their eyes, their brains, their arteries and their hearts. And sooner or later, they will understand that in the mouth also, the aromas and the fondant are much higher!