As you might know, chocolate isn’t great for you. Especially white chocolate, which is full of sugar and has no actual cocoa in it.
Dark chocolate is becoming increasingly popular too.
But chocolates darker counterpart – rightfully named dark chocolate – has some pretty nifty health benefits, and is arguably the healthiest out of all chocolates.
Firstly, let’s point out how dark chocolate is full of vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants.
A 100-gram bar of dark chocolate with 70–85% cocoa is said to contain:
- 11 grams of fiber
- 67% of the RDI for iron
- 58% of the RDI for magnesium
- 89% of the RDI for copper
- 98% of the RDI for manganese
- Lots of potassium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium
They’re also FULL of antioxidants. Raw cocoa beans have been tested for antioxidant levels and they’re among the highest on the planet… so just imagine how much is in high cocoa % dark chocolate. See, health food doesn’t have to taste like cardboard! Antioxidants repair the body from oxidative stress and help neutralise free radicals which can damage cells and even DNA in the body.
Because of the potassium levels and other related compounds in the food, there is evidence to suggest that dark chocolate helps blood flow around the body and helps regulate ones blood pressure. We’ve written a whole article on how important it is to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level, so it must be good to know your chocolate snack is helping keep you healthy!
There are plenty more recognised health benefits that we can’t even begin to explain here; improved brain function, a reduced risk of heart disease, protection from the sun. But at the end of the day, too much of a good thing is a bad thing – and dark chocolate is no exception. There are often levels of sugar that are very high in the food, and they contain lots of fats, despite some of them being good fats. So make sure you watch your intake, because dark chocolate is quite calorie dense, and if you’re eating it to keep healthy (ish), you don’t want to overdo it and get the opposite result you’re hoping for!
