What Eating Dark Chocolate Does for Your Body
Dark chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world, not only due to its pleasant aroma and delicious flavor, but also because it’s been shown to be highly beneficial for both physical and emotional health.
Sometimes eating chocolate can cause guilty feelings in people who aren’t aware of its many benefits, and who still believe the myth that it will make them “fat”. But no one should feel bad about eating small quantities of dark chocolate a day. This is because, instead of packing on the pounds or otherwise harming your body, it actually has properties that are quite good for you.
What happens in your body when you eat dark chocolate?
Because it’s rich in antioxidants, it’s one of the best foods for preventing the accumulation of free radicals and the premature aging of cells. This is really important because it keeps toxic substances that can negatively affect your health from building up. It also promotes youthful cells, so it’s often recommended as part of skincare regimens.
Shortly after you eat dark chocolate, your energy levels increase. This improves your ability to focus on your day-to-day activities.
If you eat a small amount of this food every day, you lower your risks of heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems. This is all due to its high antioxidant contents!
In times of stress, anxiety, distress, or when you’re in a bad mood, eating chocolate can act as a natural sedative to help you relax, thanks to the fact that it stimulates the body’s production of serotonin.
Dark chocolate contains high flavonoid levels. Flavonoids are antioxidants that protect the skin from damage caused by harmful UV rays. While they can’t protect your outer layer of skin from sun damage like sunscreen will, it does reduce the internal cellular impact.
Other good reasons to eat dark chocolate
In addition to the benefits we just mentioned, eating dark chocolate moderately has other positive effects:
- Helps fight and eliminate fatigue.
- Makes you feel satisfied, keeping you from consuming more calories that your body doesn’t need.
- Its high magnesium levels help repair DNA, build new cellular tissue, and relax the muscles.
- Stimulates good blood flow, avoiding heart problems and the formation of varicose veins.
- Its calcium contents, in addition to being good for your nails and teeth, can also prevent osteoporosis.
- Its zinc contents can prevent and control anemia.
- Dark chocolate helps keep joints and tendons healthy, thanks to its high levels of phosphorus, calcium, and natural antibiotics.
- Dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids.
- It may help prevent colon cancer, high cholesterol, and other chronic disorders.
- Supplies healthy fats to improve the overall function of your nervous system and prevents high triglyceride levels.
- The theobromine in dark chocolate can help reduce the activity of nerves in your throat that trigger coughing.
How to consume dark chocolate in a healthy way
Your consumption of chocolate should be moderate. You should always choose dark chocolates to get the greatest benefits. Nowadays, you can find many different varieties of chocolate in stores that, while they taste delicious, lack the benefits of dark chocolate and are probably also loaded with ingredients that can have a negative effect on your body.
People in good overall health can enjoy up to two servings of dark chocolate a day based on their diet and level of physical activity. For special cases like people with diabetes or those who are overweight or obese, it’s best to talk with a doctor before choosing to consume dark chocolate.
