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With all of this talk of removing junk food from your diet, some people go through withdrawal symptoms and miss the taste of some of their forgotten foods. Fortunately, some people believe that chocolate does not have to suffer the same fate. Apparently, it must be dark chocolate, though. Unlike your standard milk chocolate bar, dark chocolate is a much richer source of cocoa.

Cocoa is actually created from the seeds of a certain plant called the cacao tree, believe it or not. Cocoa powder is produced from these seeds and then combined into many of the sweet snacks with which our society is familiar. Almost all of these foods are complete junk, being high in sugar, fat and calories. But dark chocolate is not considered to fall under this list of junk.

The recommendations are to eat nor more than a couple of ounces of dark chocolate per day. Any more than that, and you start to run into the adverse health effects that are common to sweet foods. Cocoa is an abundant source of flavonoids, particularly a certain type called epicatechin. Flavonoids are known to protect cellular damage and decrease inflammation.

An ounce of dark chocolate is roughly 160 calories. It contains magnesium, which is essential for muscle functioning. Dark chocolate also has 5 percent of the daily value of selenium, which is a mineral anti-oxidant. Some studies have shown that chocolate cravings might be linked to low magnesium levels and certain neurotransmitters like serotonin, which is critical to emotional stability and happiness.

Tryptophan, that amino acid that everyone knows about from turkey (the one that makes you fall asleep), can be found in dark chocolate. Aside from causing drowsiness in excess, it is used to create this serotonin. Lastly, chocolate contains stimulants as well as PEA, which is the hormone thought to be largely responsible for the feeling of love. Whether PEA actually has effects when ingested like this is not well-known.

Aside from those effects, cocoa has several other positive health effects:

Improved Circulatory Health

Studies have linked a relationship between dark chocolate consumption and great blood vessel functioning, as well as lower blood pressure. Obviously blood vessels are very important to every part of your body, as it transports nutrients and waste to and from cells, respectively. Daily consumption of the chocolate may lessen the risk of atherosclerosis, which is the thickening of arteries. This is one of the leading risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

Relaxing Insulin Resistance

Dark chocolate may even help the body respond to insulin. Insulin resistance leads to diabetes, which has been on the rise for some time now, along with increasing obesity trends. More than that, the improved blood vessel functioning from this chocolate may help diabetic people who often deal with circulatory problems.

Supporting Healthy Pregnancy

The same stimulants found in dark chocolate have been found to help less the risk of a condition called pre-eclampsia, which occurs in some women with high blood pressure.

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