Chocolate Without Guilt this Christmas

Once chocolate was the left hand of the devil; highly seductive and dangerous to your health and waistline. No longer says medical science, chocolate is a super food if used in moderation.

Have you been catching all the buzz about the healthful qualities of Chocolate lately. I think I need to approach some of the local Specialty Chocolate Stores such as Fantastic Fudge and PeterBrooke Chocolatiers for a piece of the action. Chocolate has all but been elevated to superfood status and more good news keeps rolling in daily.

Most of us don’t think of chocolate as a plant-based food, but it is. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree. These seeds, also known as cocoa beans, are extremely rich in flavonoids and we already knew for a while that these natural antioxidants help protect against cardiovascular disease.
Once harvested, cocoa beans are left to ferment before being dried, roasted, and processed into the chocolate products we know and love.
But not all chocolate is created equal. Processing destroys many of the natural flavonoids present in cocoa beans, and chocolate products that have been alkalized have been almost entirely depleted of their natural goodness.
It’s really only dark chocolate, high in cocoa content, that seems to be of benefit. Not white chocolate. Not milk chocolate. Only rich, dark chocolate. It’s a lot like with Red Wine. Not every red wine has all the healthful properties. But that is for a separate story.
Today we’re talking chocolate.

Besides the positive effects on heart disease there are three more reasons why you may want to include chocolate in your Christmas shopping and Gift giving
•    Chocolate makes you smarter. Ample research suggests that the flavonols in dark chocolate increase cerebral blood flow, which in turn  triggers the creation of new blood vessels and brain cells. And a new study showed that older adults performed better on cognitive tests after eating small portions of the sweet stuff. Talk about a nourished noggin!

‚Ä¢¬†¬† ¬†Chocolate weakens heart attacks. Although more research is needed to confirm this one, a new study showed that regular chocolate eaters who had heart disease were less likely to die following a heart attack, compared with the people who didn’t treat themselves to the dark and dreamy stuff.
‚Ä¢¬†¬† ¬†Chocolate has a cavity-fighting compound. Yep. You may not want to brush your teeth twice daily with a chocolate bar, but some interesting new research shows a compound in chocolate — theobromine — may be just as good as fluoride at hardening tooth enamel. So the compound could find its way into toothpastes and mouthwashes one day. Until then, keep in mind that most commercially prepared and packaged chocolate has lots of sugar in it.

Don’t Go Overboard just because you need an excuse.

Now one other great little tip I learned in my native Holland, when the weather turns cold and nasty, a cup of Hot Cocoa a day will not only lower your blood pressure, it will also get your mood and energy up quicker than any chocolate bar.