Chocolates are considered unhealthy junk food because of all the sugar and calories in them. But scientists have discovered through experiments that eating chocolate is very beneficial for both your body and your mind. Eating chocolate can prevent heart diseases, can improve brain functioning as well as help you lose some weight.
It’s good for your heart
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, contains antioxidants that can prevent heart diseases. A study in Sweden revealed that people who drink 1 or 2 cups of hot chocolate every week has much less chances of having heart attacks than those who didn’t. Another experiment found that eating dark chocolate every day reduces blood pressure and lowers the chance of a heart attack or a stroke by about 39%.
The reason behind the chocolate’s ability to prevent heart diseases is the high amount of antioxidants present in it. Antioxidants make blood arteries and veins more flexible, which helps more blood flow towards the heart. Because of this, blood pressure drops, and the chance of a heart attack or any harmful heart disease is lessened.
It helps you lose weight
Dark chocolate reduces cravings for sweet, salty and fatty foods. Eating it will give you a feeling of satisfaction and lower your desire for eating junk food and food high in calories. So eating dark chocolate helps you lose weight by making you less interested in eating delicious sugary and fatty junk foods.
But one thing to be kept in mind is that the chocolate has to be dark chocolate. Milk chocolate has too many calories in it because of all the sugar and milk, and the nutrients that are found in dark chocolate are present in very little amounts in milk chocolate. Therefore, while eating dark chocolate may help you lose your weight, milk chocolate will do the unwanted damage by packing more fat onto your belly.
Prevents Diabetes
Insulin is a chemical produced in the stomach, which helps in the process of digestion. A study has found that eating chocolate everyday can reduce insulin resistance by 50%. Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body produces a lot of insulin, but does not use them efficiently for metabolism, i.e. digestion processes. When that happens, glucose builds up in the blood instead of getting absorbed by the body cells, and that leads to conditions like type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. As eating dark chocolate reduces insulin resistance, it therefore also reduces the risk of contracting diabetes.
Higher intelligence
People who eat chocolate regularly tend to have higher IQs than those who don’t. I’m not saying that anyone who eats chocolate regularly is smarter than anyone who doesn’t, but if you do eat chocolate, you’ll find that it helps improve your thinking capabilities. The reason for this, scientists say, is that eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate, helps make more blood flow towards your brain. Because of this, different parts of the brain are activated, and therefore the performance and alertness in your brain is improved.
To know more about the potential benefits of chocolate, watch this video: