Chocolates: Healthy or Not?

Chocolates, as we all know is the most known sweet dessert that almost everybody liked. From its pleasant smell to its sweet taste. It is also delicious, isn't it? But most of us knew that chocolates can make us fat and unhealthy.

Yes, that is partly true IF and only if you don't  have control in eating those. Chocolate is very high in calories with 1/3 of a cup of dark chocolate contains 332 calories. By this, you can gain more than 1 pound of fat every two weeks if your daily diet adds a bar of chocolate.

Gaining weight is not the only bad effect in eating too much chocolates, you can also have tooth decay if you dont regularly brush your teeth. Chocolate is not good for dogs because it has thobromine and caffeine which are toxic to them that can cause sickness or death.

But above all, there is also a lot of good and positive effects of eating chocolates that we don't know so you dont have to worry a lot.


There are lots of types of chocolate- white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sweetened and unsweetened chocolate etc., but dark chocolate is the best chocolate you can benefit.

Dark chocolate is very nutritious.
In fact, in a 100 gram bar of dark chocolate with 70-85% cocoa contains (1):
11 grams of fiber.
67% of the RDA for Iron.
58% of the RDA for Magnesium.
89% of the RDA for Copper.
98% of the RDA for Manganese.
It also has plenty of potassium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium.

Chocolate is a brain booster. Natural stimulants in chocolate produce a boost in both physical and brain energy, primarily from caffeine and theobromine. Also regarding brain health, a Johns Hopkins study found that dark chocolate may shield the brain from damage after a stroke by increasing cellular signals.




Chocolate is anti- oxidant. Anti- oxidants helps our body cells to resist damage and it slows down our body from aging.This is why the antioxidant polyphenols in chocolate are so valuable, as they have the ability to stop free radical mediated oxidation. This helps to decrease the risk of those and other diseases by directly interfering with one of the major preventable causes of chronic degenerative diseases. In chocolate, there was one component which is a fatty acid, usually oxidize the cholesterol, that helps eliminate fats in the bloodstream that may improve blood flow and at the same time lower blood pressure.

Chocolate also affect our mood. Its smell may increase theta brain waves that can cause relaxation. It also contains phenyl ethylamine that is a mild mood elevator.




Hence, eating chocolate is not bad at all. Infact it gives us some health benefits and may help us in some situations but keep in mind that TOO MUCH IS BAD.







References

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/can-chocolate-make-fat-4624.html

https://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090118205728AAyQ6ax

http://authoritynutrition.com/7-health-benefits-dark-chocolate/

http://www.student.chula.ac.th/~54407744/goodnbad.htm

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/14/chocolate-benefits.aspx