Tag Archive: dark chocolate

Dark Chocolate Benefit for Peripheral Artery Disease

Eating dark chocolate, instead of milk chocolate, has been recommended by health experts for quite some time now. Its reputation, health-wise, is not news anymore.

According to the Journal of the American Heart Association, patients suffering from PAD (peripheral artery disease) can reap major benefits from eating chocolate. Apparently, chocolate can improve vascular health by increasing blood flow.
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Basking In The Awesome Chocolate

Below are the reasons why you should always save some space for chocolate on your plate.

  1. Chocolate is good for your heart.
    Daily consumption of chocolate may cut down one’s risk of suffering from a heart attack and even stroke.
  1. Chocolate can help you shed some unwanted pounds.
    People have this notion that chocolate makes you fat. It’s not always the case. Research has shown that a person who gets his chocolate fix on a regular basis is more likely to be slim than one who doesn’t. Turns out, a person who eats chocolate five times per week or more has a lower BMI (Body Mass Index) than those who eat chocolate less frequently.
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Dark Chocolate – The Dessert of the Modern Age

Want something to balance the savory taste of your meal? Choose dark chocolate. Even a little can do the trick, that’s why it’s the go-to dessert of a lot of people leaning towards a healthy lifestyle.

Here are a few ways you can savor dark chocolate:

1. Make it you workday treat!
In the middle of a particularly demanding day, take a break, and much on some dark chocolate. It will melt away stress as it melts in your mouth.

2. Make it a staple in your relaxing ritual.
"Me time" is not complete without your heartwarming comfort food. Cap off the experience with some dark chocolate in hand.

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Dark Chocolate Lovers Tolerate Bitterness In Ice Cream

According to senior author John E. Hayes, Assistant Professor of Food Science and Director of the Sensory Evaluation Center, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, their main objective in this particular study zeroed in on identifying whether rejection thresholds for added bitterness in chocolate ice cream has a direct correlation with personal preferences for solid milk or dark chocolate.

"Estimating rejection thresholds could be an effective, rapid tool to determine acceptable formulations or quality limits when considering attributes that become objectionable at high intensities," he said.

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Mood-enhancing Dark Chocolate

A recently published study in Australia claimed that dark chocolate enhances one’s mood by means of boosting calmness and feelings of contentment. How is this possible? It’s all in the polyphenols that cocoa is known to be rich in.

Polyphenols are naturally found in plants and are a basic element of the human diet. Such compounds are proven to lessen oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is linked to a lot of diseases. Also, polyphenols are said to have outstanding psychological effects.

“Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement,” Matthew Pase, a PhD candidate at the University of Swineburne in Melbourne and lead author of the study, claims. “This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood.”

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Chocolate Facts You Want To Know

Always be choosy with the chocolate you eat. Chocolate is known to be packed with nutrients, but to be able to get its substantial benefits, we must know what we're eating.

Chocolates that have at least 70% cocoa are the best ones, considering the higher the cocoa content, the more nutritious. Your chocolate is also better off non- or lightly alkalized or non-dutched. While milk and white chocolate are head-tilting good, they don’t offer as much healthy flavanols as dark chocolate does.

If you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, fret not. It's actually an acquired taste, and you can develop it by slowly increasing percentage of cocoa in the chocolates you eat. As a matter of fact, there are milk chocolates with 50 percent cocoa or more available in the market now.
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Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark with Dark Chocolate

Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark with Dark ChocolateYum!  I really enjoy this seasonal chocolate from Ghiradelli.

I like how the dark chocolate is strong enough to come through the peppermint.  The texture is fantastic, as the crunchy pieces feel like tiny peppermint bits, and that just adds to the enjoyment.
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Milk Chocolate Fans Don’t Dig Bitter Chocolate Taste

On a personal note, as a consumer of chocolates as a child, I used to despise the taste of dark chocolates. For me, you don't get to enjoy the fullness and richness of the chocolate if it tastes so bitter.

Of course people carry with them a number of cultural and emotional biases whenever they eat. What you have grown up with, what you always consumed, for example, can really influence the way you view foods as they are. Chocolate is the same way.  Therefore chocolate manufacturers have to constantly invent and make new innovations to satisfy the worldwide market of chocolate consumers.

In the technological and digital age, foodies are almost everywhere. More and more people are taking photos and videos of their food, blogging about certain dishes, and boast of having such a delicate palate that they are keen enough to find the exquisiteness of some food.
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Dark Chocolate for Kids?

If it's sweet, kids will eat it.  Make that sweetness chocolate, and it's gone without even thinking about it.  For most kids that's true even if it's dark chocolate (except, strangely for our son, who loves milk chocolate and won't touch dark chocolate).

Dark chocolate often in the news for its heart healthy consequences, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke in adults.  Now someone has finally asked the question, "is dark chocolate healthy for children?"
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Dark Chocolate for Reducing Cardiac Diseases

As a self-proclaimed and a self-confessed chocoholic, I have always been particularly keen about the things I come across on the Internet that talk about my favorite sweet treat. In recent years, there have been many stories about the health benefits that dark chocolates are able to provide.

Recent research brings up a certain metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of many risk factors that include an elevated blood pressure as well as high cholesterol and abdominal obesity.  This condition places a person in a position that can lead to diseases like coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many different types of carcinoma or cancer. The participants in the study showed no symptoms of coronary heart disease, and were not takers of any medications that can lower blood pressure.
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