Healthy Chocolate is a Wonderful Way to Reap Long Term Health Benefits by Eating a Delicious Sweet Treat.

Healthy Chocolate can go a long way towards improving your overall health.  This all seems like a dream but did you know eating healthy chocolates three times a day can reap bountiful, long lasting health benefits?  How is this statement possible?  Well…Chocolate, especially raw chocolate, is the number one superfood on the planet.  A superfood is a term used to describe certain types of food with high phytonutrient content.  Phytonutrients are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants and include familiar compounds such as beta-carotene, lycopene and flavonals.

Healthy Chocolates and the USDA Food Pyramid

The USDA developed a 'food pyramid' to help everyone understand which foods and how many of those foods you need to consume each day in order to keep your body healthy and in balance. Many more people would be much healthier if they consumed all of the USDA’s listed daily recommended fruits and vegetables. The world wide epidemics we hear about in the daily news, such as swine flu, would no longer pose a threat to most individuals. So if you are not “tapped into” the USDA’s food pyramid, three healthy chocolates a day can really help fill in the nutritional gaps when your diet doesn’t really meet the needs of your body.

You will Never Look at a Banana the Same Way…

People who engage in unhealthy dietary habits can greatly benefit from eating healthy chocolates. Healthy chocolates systematically deliver the three top superfoods on the planet to your body while blasting your system with potent antioxidants. The high levels of antioxidants begin to repair, restore, detoxify and cleanse the body by neutralizing the multitude of free radicals that regularly attack our bodies each and every day.

Not sure what that means? Imagine the following… Within days of purchasing green bananas they begin to ripen by turning yellow and if not eaten in a timely manner they quickly deteriorate into an unsightly brown color. Now think about your skin… Free radicals are always attacking your skin. When you are young your body has no problem defending itself against the free radicals. However, over time the daily battering of free radicals takes its toll and your skin ripens just like a banana. However, instead of turning brown your skin becomes wrinkled. What we do not see or cannot wrap our heads around are what those free radicals are doing to the inside of our bodies! What does Science say? Scientific studies have proven that by consuming healthy chocolates people are actually experiencing immediate and long term health benefits. Dr. Steve Warren and the University of Utah are conducting studies on the health benefits of eating cocoa rich raw chocolate. Their studies have determined the following:

• Cocoa may delay, or even prevent, dementia.
• Cocoa can help slow the effects of Parkinson’s.
• The Ingestion of cocoa leads to an increase in cerebral blood flow lasting up to four hours after ingestion.
• Increased brain blood flow can contribute to a decreased risk of dementia, stroke, or other vascular cognitive impairment.
• Research points to the fact that unprocessed cocoa powder improves the function of the pancreas and lowers diabetic risk.
• Cocoa has also been observed to be as effective as weight loss, exercise, medications and other dietary supplements in increasing insulin sensitivity.
• The epicatechins in cocoa can protect the heart muscles after a heart attack.
• Cocoa lowers blood pressure by decreasing oxidative stress.
• Cocoa lowers blood pressure through stimulation of nitric oxide levels in the body.
• High levels of flavanols found in chocolate can improve mental acuity when taken in the proper amounts.
• Research proves that flavonoids from ingested cocoa are being utilized by the body, and positively affect the body’s immune system.

These findings are just the start… These are just 'some' of his reported findings.  You can learn more about the benefits of healthy chocolate by reading Dr. Warren 2009 Science Report. So as you can see, the people who eat healthy chocolates on a regular basis reap specific health benefits generated by the chocolate. There is hope to feel like you 'used to' and it’s a chocoholics dream to be able to eat chocolate in order to feel better as opposed to drinking a dietary suppliment or popping some pills. What would you rather put in your body to feel better?  Eating delicious nutritious healthy chocolates are quite satisfying because letting just one melt slowly in your mouth three times a day makes you feel like you have had multiple chocolates.  There is a chocolate party waiting to happen in your mouth and you are invited!! Your Chocolate Temptress, Jean Kelsey Follow me on Twitter! @ImmaChocoholic