A Chocolate a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

By Linda Orlando

Remember all those times your mother told you that you could only have a little chocolate milk, because chocolate wasn’t good for you? Or those Halloween nights pawing through your candy stash, when you were allowed just one tiny piece because chocolate wasn’t good for you? Well, in recent years scientists and researchers have gone to a lot of trouble to prove your mother wrong.

Yes, it’s true! High quality chocolate is now known to have significant positive health benefits. Eating at least 2 oz. a day of plain dark chocolate—the darker the better, with a minimum content of 70% chocolate solids—can be beneficial to your health. Dark chocolate protects against heart disease, high blood pressure, and many other health hazards. Chocolate contains several essential trace elements such as iron, calcium, potassium, and vitamins A, B1, C, D, and E. Cocoa, from which chocolate is made, is the most potent natural source for magnesium, a mineral that is beneficial for the cardiovascular system. Magnesium deficiency has been linked with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, joint problems, and PMS.

Chocolate is not only healthy in moderation, it is a lot more enjoyable than downing a handful of vitamin pills. Granted, it contains more calories than vitamins, but as long as you balance your diet to accommodate the calories, eating chocolate every day can provide an emotional boost as well as a physical one simply because of the enjoyment. The violent mood swings familiar to women who suffer from PMS are attributable to a pre-menstrual drop in progesterone levels. Adding magnesium to the diet—such as the magnesium provided by dark chocolate—has been proven to increase pre-menstrual progesterone levels, thus alleviating the problem of PMS.

The healthiest way to satisfy a craving for chocolate is to consume plain dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% or more cocoa solids. Dark chocolate satisfies a chocolate urge with less sugar and saturated fat than other types of chocolate. If you just can’t stomach dark chocolate, though, milk chocolate or white chocolate is better than none, as long as the chocolate has a minimum of 30% chocolate solids or chocolate butter.

Chocolate lovers who know the health benefits of consuming chocolate may think that it’s okay to choose cheap "brand name" chocolate, such as the coatings used for candy bars. But such types of chocolates are usually very low in chocolate solids (some less than 7%), and they are all high in sugar content and saturated fats, both of which can quickly ruin your teeth as well as your figure. The fat in high quality plain chocolate, however, can be considered cholesterol-free because it does not clog arteries or contribute to high cholesterol levels.

Montezuma, the legendary Aztec Emperor, summed up the value of chocolate when he described it as "the divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food."