9 reasons chocolate is great zt

CHOCOLATE can give you a real boost – and there are an incredible nine ways it can improve your health. For years boffins have been telling us the antioxidants in chocolate, particularly the dark stuff, can help ward off heart disease and even fight tooth decay. Now, another group of scientists has discovered a daily dose of chocolate can help lower your blood pressure.
They also found it could help reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. But with the average bar containing about 280 calories and a whopping 31g of sugar, do the so-called benefits give us a licence to scoff?
Here, ANDREA HAMMETT carries out a health check on some of the most popular cocoa-friendly studies.
Aphrodisiacs
THE theory that chocolate boosts your love life has been around since the 16th Century when the Aztec Emperor Montezuma downed mugfuls of the stuff before an orgy. Many kings and leaders have since followed suit.
Studies show chocolate is rich in a substance called phenylethylamine (PEA). This gives a natural high and is similar to chemicals released in the brain when you fall in love.
Chocolate also triggers the release of the chemical serotonin, which can boost your mood and energy levels — good for anyone wanting to get in the mood for love.
But saying it physically lifts your libido could be stretching the truth too far.
Heart disease
PACKED with flavonoids, dark chocolate has been shown in numerous studies to help protect against heart disease. These antioxidants mop up free radicals, which in turn can prevent the furring of arteries.
A study by University Hospital, Zurich, also found that the antioxidants could stave off the narrowing of arteries suffered by smokers.
Just two hours after eating 40g of polyphenol-rich chocs, ultrascans revealed the smoothness and flow in arteries was improved.
The British Heart Foundation says it’s better to get your antioxidants from a wide range of fruit and veg. True, but not as much fun.

Cholesterol
MANY dieters avoid chocolate because it’s generally high in fat. The cocoa butter it contains is high in saturated fat, which we all know contributes to high levels of lousy LDL cholesterol. However, the good news is that some of this fat comes from something called stearic acid, which the liver converts into heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
This type of fat does NOT raise bad cholesterol and may even lower it.
The bad news is that higher levels of stearic acid are once again found in the dark varieties, so a Mars bar a day won’t help your heart.
Bone health
HERE’s some good news for lovers of milk chocolate. Just 100g provides you with 220mg of calcium, a quarter of your recommended daily intake, which can help build strong healthy bones.
Getting enough calcium when you are young can help ward off the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.
PMS
MILK chocs contain magnesium, which many studies show to be beneficial to women suffering from PMS.
There probably isn’t enough to have a noticeable effect, but there’s no harm in tucking into a bar if it makes you feel better at that tetchy time of the month.
Breast cancer
DARK chocolate can reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 50 per cent, according to the University of Carolina. Once again, it’s the polyphenols that could be the key because they mop up the free radicals that cause DNA damage, which has been linked to cancer.
But if you eat too much it could have the opposite effect because being overweight is a risk factor for many cancers.
Fatigue disorder
SCIENTISTS say dark chocolate could help prevent the chronic fatigue condition ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis), once known as yuppie flu.
It leaves people feeling exhausted and with neurological problems however a placebo-controlled study by Hull Royal Infirmary found that sufferers who had a small bar a day for eight weeks felt better and less tired.
But to get the beneficial effects sufferers need to eat chocs with 85 per cent cocoa.
Tooth decay
DENTISTS usually tell you to avoid sugar but Japanese scientists reckon if we harness some of the components of the sweet stuff we could FIGHT tooth decay.
They found that part of the cocoa bean zaps mouth bacteria.
Unfortunately, the bit of the cocoa bean that contains antibacterial properties is in the part discarded in the chocolate-manufacturing process, so dentists are likely to stand by their advice, for now.
Brain boost
NEED to be on top form for a meeting or that all-important pub quiz? Then guzzle a mug of hot chocolate a couple of hours before. Experts at the University of Nottingham found the flavonoids boost blood flow to key areas of the brain.