Published By: Ipsita Jha

Surprising health benefits of dark chocolate

This cocoa-rich guilty indulgence is best to satiate sweet cravings and also uplifts your spirits. Here’s a list of some of the potential benefits of the palatable dark chocolate.

“Chocolate is happiness that you can eat.” Many of us like to enjoy sweet chocolate treat almost every day, in any form, but eating dark chocolate has several health benefits too that are not known to us yet.

Dark chocolate is rich in phytonutrients known as flavanols, which contain excellent antioxidant properties and can play an essential role in the prevention of many diseases.

Read on to know more about the remarkable health benefits of dark chocolate.

  1. Rich in Antioxidants
Dark chocolate rich in cocoa contains a wide range of powerful antioxidants, such as flavonols and polyphenols. These antioxidants prevent the oxidative stress and flush out the disease-causing free radicals out from the body, protecting your tissues and cells from any damage.
  1. Maintains Cholesterol Levels
Consuming dark chocolate daily helps to maintain blood cholesterol levels by reducing the bad or LDL cholesterol levels and increasing the good or HDL cholesterol levels. The compounds like polyphenols and theobromine present in dark chocolate make it one of the fantastic cholesterol-lowering foods.
  1. Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases
Eating dark chocolate may help to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. The antioxidant-rich flavanols present in dark chocolate helps to maintain the blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which are some of the major factors impacting cardiovascular health.
  1. Protects your skin from sunburns
The bioactive compounds found in dark chocolate works miraculously for the skin. The flavanols present in cocoa are great for the skin and protects it from damage, sunburn, and keeps it hydrated.
  1. Improves Brain Function
Dark chocolate consumption is also beneficial to maintain brain health. The high cocoa content in dark chocolate is rich in stimulant substances, like caffeine and theobromine, which stimulates neural activity and improves blood flow in the brain. The high-flavonol dark chocolate is good to improve brain function, reduce stress and enhances learning and memory.
  1. Manages blood sugar levels
Eating dark chocolate in limited amount can also help to reduce the insulin resistance to maintain the blood sugar levels in the body. Insulin resistance is the primary cause of abnormally high blood glucose levels, especially in type-2 diabetes.
  1. Highly Nutritious
Good quality dark chocolate with high cocoa has a lot of nutritional benefits. It contains several essential nutrients such as fibre, protein, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorous, zinc and selenium.

Dark chocolate has many health benefits, but it also has high calorie and fat content. So, try to choose high-quality dark chocolate with low sugar and high cocoa content, and you must consume them in moderation.