Eating chocolate is commonly considered unhealthy due to its high fat and sugar content. A lot of people believe chocolate contributes to diabetes, obesity, and other health problems, which isn’t true if you eat dark chocolate in an appropriate quantity.
Moreover, as per a 2015 study, conducted by the American College of Cardiology, “it was observed that eating dark chocolate improves the energy in mitochondria and increased mitochondrial biogenesis, which helped in boosting the energy levels instantly.“
Other several health benefits are linked with cocoa that is the main ingredient of dark chocolate. Considering this, how much chocolate is good for your health is based on its cocoa content. Dark chocolate majorly contains a higher content of cocoa.
So let’s highlight some of the amazing benefits of dark chocolate.
A. It is good for your heart
Studies have reported that the flavonoids present in dark chocolate are good for keeping your veins and arteries flexible. On that account, chocolate is considered beneficial for maintaining the heart’s health by reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Moreover, dark chocolate also lowers cholesterol levels.
Related: Burn Your Belly Fat By Eating Dark Chocolate
B. It boosts your mood significantly
A few bites of chocolate can lift your sadness and freshen your mood. Cocoa has been found useful in making one feel more happy and relaxed. Besides, it also gives a reduction to your stress levels as well as improves your focus.
C. Dark Chocolate is actually a nutritious snack
A bar of dark chocolate with great cocoa content is actually a nutritious snack that can be enjoyed regularly. It contains a significant amount of copper, manganese, iron, fibre, zinc, selenium and, potassium. To avail maximum benefits from chocolate, pick the one that has 75-80% content of cocoa.
D. Dark chocolate reduces the risk of diabetes
Insulin resistance causes high blood glucose levels that is the biggest factor of developing type 2 diabetes. According to research, the flavonoids in dark chocolate assist in reducing oxidative stress that is accountable for causing insulin resistance. Therefore, eating cocoa-rich chocolate is useful for reducing the risk of diabetes.
How Much Chocolate A Person Can Eat In A Day?
It is recommended to eat 30-60g of dark chocolate per day. If you eat more than this, you may end up consuming more calories. So, you can eat the recommended dose of dark chocolate regularly to benefit your mental and physical health.
Related: How Much Weight Can You Expect to Lose In A Month
What Are The Disadvantages Of Overeating Chocolate?
Before discussing the cons of overeating chocolate directly, let’s throw some light on different types of chocolate, which are:
White chocolate: White chocolate has almost no health benefits since it is loaded with lots of sugar and calories and has no nutritional value. And it can put you at risk of developing several health diseases. One needs to do workout consistently to burn calories obtained from white chocolate.
Milk chocolate: Milk chocolate is also similar to white chocolate when it comes to health benefits. Milk chocolate contains hardly 10% pure cocoa in liquid form along with a lot of sweeteners and milk powder, which adds no value to your health.
In a nutshell, white and milk chocolate are good if you’re only looking for some amazing taste.
Dark chocolate: It has many health benefits which are just discussed above. However, it can also bring some harm if it is being consumed in high quantity.
Since we all know excess of everything is bad and same goes with the dark chocolate too. Consuming a lot of chocolate may have negative impacts on your health such as:
- Gaining weight is one of the negative impacts that is linked with consuming too much chocolate. If you consume a lot of calories regularly in the form of chocolate, you are definitely going to put on weight.
- It can cause gastrointestinal issues in some people as chocolate contains caffeine which is acidic. Acidic foods are responsible for causing, stomach ulcers and heartburn. So if you eat a lot of chocolate, you better stop it now.
- Chocolate contains high content of potassium which isn’t good for people with kidney disease. These people need to avoid potassium-rich foods and similarly, chocolate too.
- Chocolate can trigger acne in some people with sensitive skin types. A lot of people experience mild to severe acne after eating chocolate, so if you’re one of those people, it’s better to resist your cravings for chocolate.
- Dark chocolate owns a rich amount of caffeine which can disrupt your sleep can cause insomnia in some people.
- Eating a lot of chocolate can affect your oral health by increasing the likelihood of tooth cavities and tooth decay. Kids are more prone to cavities due to the high consumption of chocolate.
To conclude
You can develop irresistible cravings for something sweet unexpectedly, so always have some dark chocolate in your access to fulfill your sweet cravings at any time. Due to its various healthy components, dark chocolate is way better than other sweets that can be eaten as your regular snack.
Moreover, since not all chocolate is being manufactured equally, some can be more beneficial than others. Therefore, it is advised to stick to some reliable chocolate manufacturers and always check the label before picking up chocolate.
