Chocolate stands out for its important properties and benefits, being popularly consumed in many countries. Learn about the most outstanding benefits.
Can any of you live without chocolate? I really don’t. And I’m going to be completely honest in this regard. Whenever I get home from work or a dinner party with my friends or family, I always love to treat myself to a light treat before I go to sleep in the form of a small ounce of chocolate. Who has not ever done this?
It is one of those pleasures of gastronomy, which provides us with a series of outstanding benefits and properties that, in itself, interest many people. As food, it is made up of a mixture of sugar with two components from the cocoa bean: a solid material (cocoa paste) and a fatty material (cocoa butter).
However, there is a preconceived idea that this sweet only serves to make us gain a few extra kilos and neglect our line. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there is no doubt that the most beneficial is dark chocolate, due to its greater contribution of cocoa. This food that has cocoa as its base ingredient, also has all kinds of advantages for our health that should not be overlooked. As long as we take it in small amounts.
4 benefits of chocolate
In one way or another, we have found it interesting to detail what are the nutritional benefits that chocolate offers so that certain unspoken myths that have been created around this sweet that already has millions of followers around the world are dismantled.
An inexhaustible source of antioxidants
As its name suggests, antioxidants will help our entire body to be always much stronger. These very beneficial components are found right in the cocoa butter that is produced when making chocolate.
To this we must also add the high level of polyphenols that also have a clearly antioxidant objective within our body. With all these elements we can considerably delay the aging process within our body.
Rich in iron
Numerous scientific studies have shown that a certain amount of chocolate can contain more iron than the same amount of beans. This means that this sweet can help us prevent certain diseases such as anemia. It also encourages the production of red blood cells so that more oxygen reaches our blood.
This is due to the fact that during the chocolate making process the cocoa is fermented, a process in which the production of iron is released, which, as we have already mentioned, offers many benefits for our health.
Helps reduce cholesterol levels
Although it may seem like a utopia, dark chocolate can also help us lower the level of cholesterol in the blood. Taken in a moderate and healthy way, cocoa is a great source of oleic acid, a component that promotes the production of good cholesterol. While at the same time getting rid of the bad guy.
In this way, it can be a great ally for all those who suffer from this condition, which unfortunately is increasingly common in men and women of any age.
Chocolate does not promote cavities
Surely during your childhood, all your parents advised you not to drink so much chocolate since otherwise you would have a multitude of cavities. However, this myth has already been collapsed hundreds of times and cocoa has not been shown to be linked to the appearance of these black spots.
What’s more, when we consume cocoa, it does not usually get stuck in the dental cavities and therefore it is quite unlikely that they cause cavities. Although it is already another issue that that particular chocolate comes with too much added sugar or caramel, ingredients that can have negative consequences for our oral health.
Properties of chocolate, in summary
- It helps us to ward off depression: helping us feel better, improving mood, mainly in the symptoms of the pre-menstrual period.
- It intensifies the libido, especially the sexual desire in women, endowing it as an essential aphrodisiac only for women.
- It is an antioxidant, being very beneficial vitamins for our health since cocoa is one of the foods with the highest level of magnesium.
- It strengthens our heart, since chocolate contains flavonoids, a basic component that helps us avoid congestion of the arteries and prevents us from heart attacks and strokes.
Nutritional values of chocolate in figures
100 grams of chocolate provide:
- Very energetic food, by providing 500 kcal per 100 grams.
- 65% carbohydrates.
- 25% fat.
- 5% protein.
- It contains minerals, such as calcium (when the chocolate is milk), or magnesium.
- It contains few vitamins and no fiber.
Some tricks to enjoy chocolate in a healthy way
We are very sure that after reading all the advantages of chocolate, you have an overwhelming desire to eat it. But beware! As we have already told you, it has to be consumed in some moderation. Therefore, through this last paragraph we are going to give you a series of guidelines so that you can enjoy them in a way that is as healthy as it is delicious:
- Better pure chocolate than milk. The first has a caloric intake much lower than the white or to which milk or saturated fat is added artificially.
- One or two ounces a day. It is the sufficient quantity with which you can benefit from all the advantages that chocolate offers without having to neglect the line.
As long as chocolate is consumed in moderation, it will not cause any other type of problem, but rather benefits that will help us stay healthy.
