Time for a Heart to Heart Chat about
Your Chocolate!
by Michelle M Pearson
February is our Heart-to-Heart month. That makes it a perfect time to learn something new that improves the condition of your heart!
So, this heart-to-heart is about your chocolate!
I know that most folks are thinking “Uh-oh! She’s about to toss out my chocolate!” But no! Here’s the good news:
Recent medical studies provide substantial evidence that chocolate actually turns out to have profoundly important heart-healthy powers! Really!
That’s right! Just in time for your gifts to loved ones for the Love holiday next week! HINT HINT. We are pleased to report that ever-increasing medical evidence does suggest that chocolate contains a whole wide range of healthy attributes, including mood-enhancing phyto-chemicals! (Yes, phyto-chemicals! After all, chocolate does come from a plant! But, no, it still does not count as a veggie.)
Here’s a highlight list below of some of the surprising benefits of chocolate – let me qualify that… we are focusing on the benefits of DARK chocolate today. Dark chocolate has by far many more benefits than it’s more processed common cousin, milk chocolate.
So, go for the good stuff because…
Dark chocolate is a plentiful source of antioxidants. Antioxidants help prevent rot and rust internally!
Dark chocolate may mildly thin the blood and also inhibit this clumping of blood platelets together, called aggregation, which is one cause of atherosclerosis.
Dark chocolate may also reduce elevated blood pressure, helping to prevent kidney disease, dementia, and other brain and memory-related disorders.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adding only half an ounce of dark chocolate to an average American diet is enough to increase antioxidant activity by 4% and lessen oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
Dark chocolate’s natural fat, called cocoa butter, is high in saturated fat; however, most of the fat content in cocoa butter is stearic acid, which numerous studies have shown does not raise blood cholesterol levels. In the human body, it acts much like the good fat in olive oil. Hurray! It’s a good fat! Well, almost, but that’s not too far of a stretch!
(Milk chocolate, on the other hand, contains added butterfat which can raise blood cholesterol levels. And high in sugar to boot. Skip it. Not worth the side effects.)
So, now what about those mood-enhancing chemicals I referred to above? Get this: dark chocolate produces at least five, not one but, yes, 5! mood enhancing, natural hormone stimulating, neuro-chemical reactions! Serotonin, the happy hormone, is just one of those five.
Dark chocolate also triggers the release of pleasurable endorphins and potentates the action of dopamine, a neurochemical associated with intimate pleasures and the “cloud nine” chemical released in the brain when people become infatuated or fall in love.
And, last and least in our list today, dark chocolate is also healthier because it has less added sugar!
That’s our sweet heart-to-heart for today! (Get it? Sweetheart. Valentine’s Day. Grin.)
We encourage you this Valentine’s Day, celebrate life, celebrate love, and celebrate health with a gift to yourself of some high-percentage organic dark chocolate! OK, so get some for the others you love, too! But remember, buying it for yourself keeps you healthy for serving them!
(Go ahead, chuckle. Laughter, and dark chocolate, are good medicine.)
Know someone who likes chocolate???
Of course, You Do!
Send Them a Link Today!
Or, even better! PIN IT to your board on Pinterest under Chocolate!
Stay tuned for more in the series, “Heart-to-Heart for Your Health” all month long – every Monday and Thursday morning!
Michelle Pearson is a dynamic wellness coach, speaker, author, and the Founder & President of Picture of Health Inc. (http://thepictureofhealth.com). On a personal health journey for the past 21 years, Michelle’s mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life through the use of state-of-the-art educational resources to produce significant and lasting health breakthroughs.
Like Chocolate? Let me know below!
Dr. Michelle's mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life, ever-growing in the Kingdom of God.
Michelle is a mountain-taker in all expressions of her calling. Sometimes it is on literal mountains leading ladies on spiritual adventures in faith. Other days, it is consulting with Kingdom-minded businesses and ministries to develop professional website platforms and social media strategies. Still other times, you will find her training mountain-takers to possess their physical land - their health, spirit, soul, and body - teaching classes and doing wellness evaluations for churches and corporations large and small, as well as providing "secret service" concierge wellness services for other speakers and ministers.
Wherever the call of God takes her, she firmly believes it is time for Christian businesses, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders to be diligent to ‘write the vision and post it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may be able to read it easily and quickly as they hasten by.’ And then ACT on the vision.
Read more About and Experience here: http://thepictureofhealth.com/michelle-2
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That was the best article ever and I am sending it to many of my favorite people. it will definatly go on my pinterst chocolate board. Just beforei read it I had my little piece of 70 % dark chocolate that I look forward too. Thank you again Michelle …you are so sweet !!!!! have a great successful week end.
Wow, bring on the chocolate!! The dark chocolate, that is!! :o) but wait a minute! For you chocolate lovers out there (I am one, myself), even though there are health benefits to eating dark chocolate, bear in mind that this is not an excuse to eat it with every meal or even every day. To borrow a phrase: "a little dab will do you".
My personal favorite is the kind that has orange pieces and tiny slivers of almond in it. One square(1"x1") alone, eaten slowly and savored, is quite satisfying! :o)
Thanks for writing this article. I will definitely be sharing it with my friends!
I was reading that different people seem to really like the Beyond Organics chocolate from Jordan Rubin. I haven't tried it yet, but would love to! Paul loves dark chocolate and I sometimes get a bar or two from the Whole Foods Store.
What you say is accurate, however, I still prefer the taste of milk chocolate! Since I am not a big candy eater, it's not an issue for me. I do enjoy those eatable arrangements with the strawberries with the dark chocolate on them though! I only get them when someone at work sends them!! Blessings! I will remember you like dark chocolate though!
This is such a sweet article…and just in time. I haven't had a sugar craving in several months, but IF I go there I will go dark…I haven't even had any of my chocolate tea I was given for a birthday gift yet, a time may come or not but it just isn't a concern like it was 2 years ago. That is real improvement, I was very addicted to chocolate and sugar, and not the good kind.