HEALTH & WELLNESS
A Little Chocolate is
Good for Your Soul
T
oo much of anything is not a good idea, but it is OK to
indulge in simple pleasures, like a bar of chocolate with
a glass of white wine or a hot cup of cocoa on a cool
night.
While there are many misconceptions about
chocolate, especially when it comes to its health benefits, experts at
CocoVia, a cocoa extract supplement brand, set the record straight on
some of the most common myths.
Chocolate contains powerful antioxidants.
Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, contains cocoa flavanols,
phytonutrients, which numerous scientific studies demonstrated
have a positive impact on health. However, cocoa flavanols are not
antioxidants. But they have been shown to have positive effects on
health that are linked to their ability to support the health and function
of blood vessels.
Chocolate is good for your heart.
Chocolate can be part of a healthy diet, but it is not a health food. Even
if chocolate is high in cocoa flavanols, the calories, fat and sugar leave it
best suited as an occasional indulgence.
Chocolate with 70 percent cacao or greater is good for you.
The percentage of cacao is not a reliable indicator of a product’s cocoa
flavanol content. Unfortunately, there is also no way of knowing exactly
how many cocoa flavanols are in a conventional chocolate product
because traditional cocoa processing, which includes fermenting,
drying and roasting of beans, destroys many of the flavanols naturally
present in the cocoa bean.
Chocolate is high in caffeine.
Chocolate does contain caffeine, but an average 1-ounce serving of
dark chocolate contains less than half the amount of caffeine found in
an average cup of black tea. The amount of caffeine in chocolate is in
proportion to the percentage of cacao in the product, meaning milk
chocolate contains less caffeine than semi-sweet or dark chocolate.
Visit cocovia.com
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GAZELLE STL