So Chocolate is OK to eat, Right?

Absolutely – even better than alright, I would actively encourage and support urges to eat chocolate. Slight caveat – chocolate as with life, requires a confrontation with the shadow self in order to elicit the benefits …

The Darker – the Better!

Chocolate Good! Sugar Baaaa-aaad! Milk chocolate has more sugar and fats as compared with Dark chocolate.

1. Eating Chocolate Helps the Heart because;

Lowers Blood Pressure, collecting Bad Cholesterol and the Risk of Heart Disease. A Small Bar of Chocolate every day, something to look forward to significantly assists your Heart and Cardiovascular System – the pipes, remember – less clogging – much easier. Chocolate helps this and can even help if your Blood Pressure come down if it is climbing up on the high side. Not the Sugar though! And can bring down the Bad Cholesterol up to 10%. Not too shabby. Remember – the Dark Side!

2. Chocolate does contain fat however some of the fat in Chocolate will not negatively impact your cholesterol level.

Some of Fats contained in Chocolate are good. Roughly speaking chocolate contains more or less 1/3 Oleic Acid, 1/3 Stearic acid and 1/3 Palmitic acid.

Oleic Acid, found in Olive Oil is a healthy monounsaturated fat.
A Good Fat.

Stearic Acid is a saturated fat but one which research is shows has a neutral effect on cholesterol.
Neutral Fat.

Palmitic Acid is also a saturated fat, one which raises cholesterol and heart disease risk.
A ‘Bad’ Fat.

Conlusion – only 1/3 of the fat in dark chocolate is bad for you.

3. Chocolate eating reduces Stress! – Well, we know! That is why we down a bar in a crisis!

People that eat chocolate regularly report to feeling less stressed. Chocolate contains phenethylamine, which triggers the release of endorphins. Interestingly so does eating chili! This reaction is similar to the one that people experience when they fall in love. For the skeptics – there is research – OK? Chocolate to the Brain, feels like ‘Love’. The closet chocolate addicts are nodding, quietly, privately – I am on to you, you are probably thinking about your next score! I know. I am on to you.

Remember ‘they’, well ‘they’ have been busy researching the biochemistry of ‘lerve’ at the Mind Lab in England. ‘They’ rounded up six couples, got them to hold squares of dark chocolate melt in their mouths until they melted and they asked them politely to smooche – whilst hooked up to blood pressure, ECG monitors and a few measures of brain excitement.

‘They’ compared physiological reactions to smooching and chocolate consumption. I wonder about research that confirms the obvious – in any case, we must be patient with the cynical – they are weighed down by suppressed rage from unfulfilled childhood needs, repressed memories of being abandoned at shopping centers, long forgotten and redirected in to … other activities such as Art and transformative achievement.

I digress …

Findings? So ‘they’ found both tasks increased heart rate and excitement of the brain’s pleasure center but kinkily – combining chocolate and smooched elevated pleasure responses – this will surprise the women folk – not, for women. ‘They’ concluded that cocoa, sugar and caffeine creates or causes a prolonged ‘high’. Fancy that! It would explain the frequenting of the chocolate isle, dreaming of frequenting the chocolate isle – eventually deciding to don the Ugg boots, get in the car in the dark of Winter – and pop down to Maxi Foods to secure – the loot.

WAIT THERE ARE MORE GOOD THINGS ABOUT CHOCOLATE

It is also very good for the Skin because Chocolate contains antioxidants – flavonoids in particular – remember those useful little chemicals – rounding up in manner of sponge destructive little wanton electrons seeking to bond in manner of that very lonely friend, just causes trouble. Well – give them Chocolate, it works at a Macro and Micro level – a true Alchemical Medicine. Also chocolate provides some mild UV light protection but not enough to avoid using sunscreen.

This will also come as a surprise to some folk so I will break this gently – eating Chocolate Improves Mood. No! Really? Yes. It does. And this is why, dark chocolate also contains several chemical compounds that have a positive effect on your mood and cognitive health. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), the same chemical your brain creates when you feel like you’re falling in love. PEA encourages your brain to release endorphins, so eating dark chocolate will make you feel happier. Also and less positive, dark chocolate contains caffeine, a mild stimulant. However, dark chocolate contains much less caffeine than coffee. A 50g bar of dark chocolate contains 27 mg of caffeine, compared to the 200 mg found in a average cup of coffee.

Chocolate has a number of interlinked positive effects on the Heart. Eating more than 45g of Dark Chocolate per week has been found to be associated with lowered risk of Stoke by 20% Not too shabby. This is probably because Dark Chocolate has blood thinning and anticoagulant properties similar to aspirin, improving circulation and blood flow due to a combination of lowering cholesterol (remember the Dark Side) and facilitating vasodilation. Dark chocolate may assist and possibly even prevent or at least slow the development of Atherosclerosis or clogging and hardening of the arteries.

Good news for those worried about developing diabetes, Dark Chocolate has a low glycemic index which means it will not cause your blood sugar to spike crazily and the Flavonoids in Dark Chocolate have also been found to reduce insulin resistance by helping cells to continue functioning according to their design. And not – suddenly start failing to recognize and use insulin for converting sugar in to energy.

Last by not least, and unexpectedly- eating Dark Chocolate is good for the teeth. Dark Chocolate contains theobromine, which has been shown to harden tooth enamel. So Dark Chocolate in conjunction with regular and effective dental cleaning, lowers your risk of getting annoying cavities. Love the person behind the Dentist, not a fan to that drill. Once, at the Dentist – and I cannot tell you how his happened, before I even lay down in that supine terrifying chair. All my jewelry just fell off. I weirdly shrank, so afeared was I of that crazy drill.