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Espresso Royale Organic Dark Sipping Chocolate | Healthy Snack of the Day

May 23, 2008 on 6:22 am | By Matt | In Healthy Recipes & Snacks | 4 Comments

Get The Health Benefits of Organic Dark Chocolate without the Fat and Calories with this Fantastic Premium Dark Hot Chocolate

Chocolate and fat-loss are not two things you normally associate with each other. But with evidence mounting that chocolate, especially the dark variety, has a number of health benefits it’s suddenly become okay to include a little dark chocolate in your diet, even if your goal is fat loss.

The Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Because chocolate is made from plants, it contains many of the same types of phytochemicals and polyphenols – including powerful flavanoids (specifically epicatechin and gallic acid) with antioxidant properties — that you find in other antioxidant powerhouses like blueberries, pomegranates, tea and red wine. 

Antioxidants are believed to help the body’s cells resist damage caused by free radicals, which are formed by normal bodily processes such as breathing or environmental contaminants like cigarette smoke or environmental pollution. 

In fact, in terms of total antioxidants, chocolate ranks at the top of the list.

It also contains arginine, an amino acid that helps the body produce nitric oxide (NOS), which aids in cell division, wound healing, and removal of ammonia from the body. Arginine also is a vasodialator — which means it causes blood vessel relaxation, which can decrease blood pressure. There is also some indication that arginine may improve sexual function as well, which may explain why chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac.

The health benefits of chocolate may include:

• Lower blood pressure, especially among people with hypertension
• Increased HDL cholesterol (the “good” kind of cholesterol)
• Increase glucose metabolism
• Improvements in mood
• Possible anti-cancer properties due to the high antioxidant content of dark chocolate

Over the past decade, a number of studies have provided clinical research to back up some of these health claims.

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