Picture of Bonnie Killip

Bonnie Killip

23+ Reasons to Eat Chocolate

The idea that eating chocolate is beneficial to our health is by no means a new one but do you know how or why? Do you want to know? With Easter just gone (and the potential for cheap chocolate rising by the day…) now is the perfect time to find out all the nice things eating chocolate can do for you.

Let’s start with sample of some of the many potential beneficial health effects that have been linked to eating (or drinking) chocolate including decreasing your risk of metabolic syndrome, hypertension, coronary heart disease, high blood lipids, stroke, cancer, cognitive function and dementia1-23. As you can see this is quite the selection so in today’s post, we’re going to get clear on just one of these and that is how chocolate contributions to keeping your heart healthy. A very worthy area of attention given that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally24.

Why is Chocolate Good for Your Heart? 

There’s are a few reasons chocolate is considered healthful when it comes to your heart and today we’re going to focus on just two of these, firstly its superb antioxidant capacity and secondly its high mineral content.

  1. Antioxidants, Chocolate & Your Heart

There are numerous different kinds of antioxidants found in all sorts of foods from nuts, fruits and vegetables to fish and egg yolks. When it comes to chocolate it is the cacao bean found within the beautifully coloured cacao pods grown on the cacao tree (scientific name Theobroma cacao which means ‘food of the gods’) which contain the antioxidants. (If you’re interested in the process of chocolate making from bean to bar this website has a simple description https://cocoarunners.com/explore/bean-to-bar/ fyi I have no affiliation with this company).

Antioxidants have the ability to help your body repair and protect itself more readily and easily from any form of damage that may come about as part of living an everyday life. The antioxidants found within chocolate play important roles including in maintaining the vascular tone and suppleness of your veins, arteries and capillaries which is important for smooth blood flow and good circulation. When compared to other foods you’ve likely heard are high in antioxidants including garlic and berries25-28 chocolate comes out on top in the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). The ORAC value is a reflection of a foods ability to protect against oxidative stress.

For anyone who wants to off some real post Easter chocolate facts the main antioxidants found in cacao are the flavan-3-ols of which there are many compounds under this name25, 29, 30.

2. Minerals, Chocolate & Your Heart

Chocolate provides a source of four main minerals that each have important roles in heart health including preventing high blood pressure (BP). These minerals are potassium, copper, magnesium and calcium31-36. Dark chocolate is higher in these minerals (except calcium) for the simple reason that a higher amount of the cacao bean is being eaten per gram of dark chocolate than milk chocolate (but hey, you can always just eat more milk chocolate…)

Potassium

There is a well-recognised inverse relationship between potassium intake and BP and stroke related deaths37-39. That is the more potassium you eat the lower your risk of dying from stroke and the content of potassium is similar in milk and dark chocolate.

Calcium

Calcium also shows a BP lowering effect although to a lesser degree than potassium40-42. The calcium content of milk chocolate is much higher than dark chocolate. In general when compared to other foods we consider good sources of calcium (such as dairy products or tahini) the calcium you get from eating chocolate is not significant however it all counts and consuming foods in which minerals are present in combination rather than solo (as in a calcium supplement) has greater beneficial health effects.

Copper

Copper receives far less attention than calcium or potassium, yet it is needed to allow for the smooth running of numerous reactions within your body including collagen synthesis which keeps your skin healthy and supple43. Copper also plays a vital role in heart health especially in the early developmental years and copper deficiencies during early development can lead to heart abnormalities and contribute to CVD later in life44. Who says kids shouldn’t eat chocolate again?… And pregnant women if you’re craving it, get into it!

Magnesium

Another lesser known mineral with numerous important roles in your body including nerve function, protein building, muscle relaxation, energy production all of which are important to heart health as well as being one of the minerals responsible for maintaining the structure and strength of your teeth and bones44.

Chocolate also provides a good source of numerous additional trace minerals all of which are necessary to allow for your body to function optimally.

Isn’t Chocolate High in Fat?

Yep, chocolate is a relatively high fat food and a third of this fat content is saturated fat and as tempting as it is for me to say so what and leave it at that I am going to quickly address this high fat fear you may have. 

For those who’ve been living under a rock or way out of touch with the health and nutrition world (you’re a dying breed and I salute you) saturated fats are those we associate with raising blood cholesterol levels and elevated blood cholesterol levels can increase your chance of developing cardiovascular disease45. However, the good news is the predominant type of saturated fatty acid in chocolate is stearic acid and stearic acid has been shown to have a neutral effect on blood cholesterol levels46-48 (that is it neither increases nor decreases your cholesterol).

To highlight this a study in which subjects consumed 280g of milk chocolate per day as part of an assortment of foods showed no adverse effects on cholesterol levels when compared to their regular diet despite a high proportion of dietary calories coming from saturated fat (20%)49. Believe it or not there is not anything inherently bad about eating fat and the research linking high fat diets to negative health consequences is mixed.

Chocolate Helps Your Brain Tap into Happiness  

On top of being good for your physical health chocolate is also a source of the chemical tryptophan which when eaten is thought to increase serotonin levels in your brain50. Why is this a wonderful reason in and of itself to eat chocolate? Because serotonin is one of the ‘feel good hormones’51-53 and there’s not too many things better (anything) than feeling good. As well as this chocolate contains precursors to neurotransmitters the little substances that get around in the synapses of your brain cells and essentially help you think fast and well and therefore may due to this fact have a further positive effect on increasing your alertness and brain function45.  

What Type of Chocolate Is Best?

It depends (a dietitian’s favourite answer). Are you eating chocolate for the maximal, concentrated hit of health benefits? Then have a cup of super bitter pure cacao. Or are you eating cholate as part of a delicious and varied diet? In which case enjoy whatever chocolate choice you like best in the moment because you don’t have to just eat cacao nibs, raw cacao powder or cacao beans for the health benefits. You really can have the chocolate with sugar, and you can have the chocolate with milk (nuts, marshmallows, coconut, caramel, orange, peppermint or any other combination that exists including for those in Australia the very viable option of vegemite). 

How Much Chocolate Should I Eat?

All sorts of numbers and measurements are given for how much chocolate you need to eat in order to experience health benefits ranging from more than five cups of cacao a day as is reported to be the intake of the Kuna Indians54, 55 (the native people of Panama and Colombia who are have incredibly low rates of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and cancer thought to be thanks to their high cacao intake) down to a 45g milk chocolate bar per day56 and everything in between…

In the context of a plentiful and variety filled diet there doesn’t appear to be a chocolate limit per se. However, because there is a substantial amount of evidence in support of diets in which a wide variety of foods contribute to meeting daily energy needs as the most health promoting chocolate can be a great addition but by no means the make or break of a healthful diet (nor is kale of kombucha).

Take Home Messages

While it’s unlikely that chocolate will fix all your life problems there is substantial evidence that chocolate can contribute to health. In this post we looked at how eating chocolate can help to decrease your risk of CVD due to its high concentration of antioxidants and minerals important to heart health.

At the end of the day what does this all mean? It means enjoy your chocolate this Easter (and forever after) and rest assured that the current scientific consensus is very much in favour of eating a diet plentiful in antioxidant rich foods (and in case you forgot this includes chocolate).

If you struggle enjoying chocolate (or any other foods) please get in contact with me because we can change this and believe me there are far more enjoyable ways to live the rest of your life than being at war with yourself.

With my whole heart I trust you found this information useful and inspiring

Become Great.  Live Great.

Bonnie.

Reference

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2 thoughts on “23+ Reasons to Eat Chocolate”

  1. Buy Followers

    One of my favorite effects of chocolate consumption is a reduction in appetite. One study quantified this by giving participants a 100 g serving of either milk or dark chocolate two hours before being served an all-you-can-eat lunch.

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