Chocolate lovers everywhere, here are more reasons to love our favourite sweet treat. Nutritionists have claimed that chocolate has various health boosting qualities, and small quantities of it can actually be good for you as part of a well-balanced diet. Great news! Read on for five health benefits associated with eating chocolate:
1. The feel-good factor: Chocolate can boost your mood
There’s a mix of ingredients in chocolate that can help elevate our mood, such as caffeine and tryptophan, which is known to stimulate production of serotonin (a natural antidepressant). Couple that with the delicious taste, texture and smell and a little chocolate is guaranteed to leave you a little happier. The feelings that chocolate induces have actually been associated to those we experience when falling in love.
2. Chocolate can be good for your heart
Chocolate contains a high level of flavonoids, which is a chemical that can help to lower our blood pressure. Eating chocolate can also help reduce the risk of stroke by thinning the blood, and it’s also said to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Bring on the bars!
3. Chocolate can help with those pesky coughs
Yet another bonus point for chocolate- it contains a chemical known as theobromine. This has been proven to suppress coughing. It acts on the nerve which takes messages from our central nervous system to our brain to cough.
4. Your brain could benefit from your love of chocolate
Another chemical in chocolate that’s working for us! Epicatechin, which can be found in green tea as well as cocoa, is shown to help protect our brains against the production of certain proteins and plaques which are known to develop in Alzheimer’s disease.
5. Your arteries get some protection
The flavonoid chemical found in chocolates has another benefit. It is known to help stop bad cholesterol from oxidising, which works to prevent the arteries furring up. In fact, it may even increase the levels of good cholesterol which help protect our arteries.
Before you go rushing out to buy lots of chocolatey goodness, it’s important to remember that too much of any sugary food isn’t good for us. It can lead to health problems such as obesity. As the points above show, consuming chocolate can have some great health benefits, but only if consumed in small amounts and as part of an otherwise healthy diet.
If you’re ready to treat yourself or a friend, we have some great chocolate hampers which are available to order for UK delivery. Check out the Mini Chocolate Lover, and ideal gift box for any chocolate lover. It’s beautifully packed with high quality chocolates in exciting flavours such as Gin & Tonic and Chilli & Lime. Most of the chocolate in our hampers is of the dark chocolate variety, which is known to be the healthiest option in the world of chocolates. Happy feasting!
