Thursday, July 30, 2009

Chocolate Are Good For Health

by Anna Kim

There is this misconception flying around that chocolates are bad for health and is the main cause of obesity and even acne. This is very much further from the truth than you think. Chocolate lovers will be glad to know that you can eat chocolate because it can also be good for your health. You don't have to avoid chocolate because it may make you fat because chocolate is more than just extra calories, but has great health benefits too.

It is really true. Chocolates do have some health benefits and it has been proven in all sorts of scientific research over the years. This is because chocolates are made of cocoa. Cocoa is made from cacao beans and cacao beans are extracted from the cacao fruit of the cacao tree. Basically, chocolate is a fruit product that underwent a tedious process to turn it into the delicious, addictive dessert you love. You will have pure cocoa if you extracted the milk and sugar from chocolates. Cocoa has a bitter taste although it has the rich chocolate scent.

Now, pure dark cocoa is very high in anti-oxidants which means it fights the free radical floating around. Also, research has proven that consuming a certain amount of dark chocolate each day will be able to help to lower your blood pressure and even prevent heart disease. Therefore, eating chocolate is not all bad but could be beneficial to your health.

Of course, this does not mean that you should rush right out to get truckloads of chocolates and binge on them. You will still need to practice some self-restrain as most commercial chocolates out there are high in sugars and milk chocolate with low cocoa content so these aren't really all that healthy. You will need to be able to distinguish between bad chocolates and good chocolates.

Yes, some not all chocolates are good and not all are bad. The bad chocolates are the ones that are sweet with a lot of sugars in it. These are the ones that will cause obesity and may even give you diabetes. They are the ones that made good chocolates seem unhealthy too. To spot a bad chocolate, all you need to do is to look at the labels and search for the ingredients. If sugar is in the first few ingredients, then it is a bad chocolate that you should stay away from.

Now, for good chocolates, it is easy to find. You need only look for sugar-free, extra dark chocolate with loads of numbers on the front. This means, look for chocolate bars with 70% cocoa content and above. These are the good guys. If you are worried about diabetes, then go for the sugar-free ones. Don't worry, they aren't bitter or anything, just artificially sweetened. If you are worried about too much artificial sweeteners, you can even find those organic sugar free ones with high cocoa content that are sure to satisfy your chocolate craving and also be good for your health.

About the Author:

Anna simply loves the five minute chocolate cake recipe and also shares her cooking, baking and food tips here. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.

Get all the information and photos:: http://coringa.info/health/chocolate-are-good-for-health

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