Dark Chocolate

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Chocolates are the source of happiness to some people, "Specially girls" right??  It's one of the world's most craved food. When you find someone crying you can actually give him ( or most of the time HER) chocolate and see what happens! have you ever asked yourself why? is it Healthy though?!​We will talk about The healthiest type of chocolate and why you should eat it? So get ready to be shocked cause we have new information and facts for you so that the next time you eat chocolate, you can proudly call it HEALTHY.

Why Dark chocolate?

Dark chocolate is made from the seed of cocoa tree and it's loaded with nutrients that can actually improve your health. But be careful today we are talking about dark chocolates only and not the other sugary chocolates like white and milk chocolates and many other that won't do you any good except making you fatter if that what you want.

1- Antioxidants

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As we talked in our previous article  (Coffee) about the antioxidants in coffee. well, it's also here.Dark chocolates contains organic compounds that are biologically active and acts as antioxidants. These includes polyphenols, flavanols, catechins. One study showed that the antioxidants found in dark chocolates are actually more than the antioxidants found in some fruits like acai berries and blue berries. (1)

2- Cholesterol effect

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Dark chocolate has a positive effect on HDL (high density lipoprotein) which is the good cholesterol and lowers the LDL (low density lipoprotein) which is the bad cholesterol and also reduces the oxidized LDL in men. Oxidized LDL means that the LDL has reacted with free radicals which makes the LDL particle itself active and can damage tissues. Well, it makes perfect sense that dark chocolate lowers the oxidized LDL and that's due to the Antioxidants found in dark chocolate (cocoa in it) that protects us from the damage caused by oxidation.
(2,3,4)    

3- Protects you from Heart disease

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This is stunning yet true, Cardiovascular disease may occur from high oxidized LDL in our blood stream causing what is called Atherosclerosis leading to death. In a Study of 470 elderly men cocoa was found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death by 50% over a 15 year period. (5)
 Another two studies showed that eating dark chocolates 2 or more times per week lowered the risk of Atherosclerosis by 32% while eating 5 or more times per week lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease by 57%!! (6,7)

4- Sun protection

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Here's a funny one, whenever you are planning on a beach vacation, consider loading up with some dark chocolates! (Not funny enough, we'll see about that).  Flavonols in dark chocolate protects against sun induced damage to your skin, increase the skin hydration and density and improves blood flow to the skin (8). In one study the MED (minimal erythemal dose which is the minimal amount of Ultraviolet sun rays required to cause redness in the skin after 24 hours from exposure) more than doubled after eating dark chocolate high in flavonols for 12 weeks. (9)

5- Anti stress and Antidepressant drug

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That sounds very weird right?! It's true though. When you feel down you need cravings right? So if you picked dark chocolate well that's a BINGO for you. After eating the chocolate it stimulates the production of a hormone called endorphin which makes you happy and satisfied. About the Antidepressant effect, dark chocolates contain something called serotonin which has an identical qualities of antidepressants.
Go ahead and take that drug right now! I mean the dark chocolate huh! 

6- Girls

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Wait what?! What's that? Well, here is the real funny part (if you don't think it's funny then just leave right now, i mean it) Okay i was kidding. The thing is somewhere in their minds they know that they will get fatter if they ate more of them so they should stop it right?
Well, The exact opposite happens for some reason they tend to eat more and more of it and this theory is called the forbidden chocolate. But actually that's good and HEALTHY for them if only they craved dark chocolate cause the hormonal levels in girls always keep on shifting causing them to be emotionally unstable (ups and downs) so eating dark chocolate can stabilize their mood and be happier.

​Believe it or not but one of the reason that actually makes women love chocolates more than men is the shape of it, If there is a new cute teddy bear shaped chocolate available at your nearest supermarket, won’t you go and buy it immediately?​One other thing you should know, there is a connection between chocolate and the menstrual cycle. When there is disturbance in body hormones so the body reacts to balance these hormones, one of them that decreases during the menstrual cycle is the serotonin (the antidepressant) and it can be raised by exercise and eating some foods like Chocolates and ice cream. (10) 

I think you will consider adding Dark chocolate to your healthy food list right? cause if not then you need to read again this article.
But as always everything should be in moderation. It's Still loaded with calories, so you must be careful when you choose your chocolate cause all the mentioned benefits are from dark chocolates with 70% or higher cocoa content only and not the other types of chocolates. So all you have to do is adding a square or two per day and you are good to go.

As always if you found this article helpful. Well, don't be selfish and share it with everyone!

 "Be Healthy, Be Safe".