It’s health — Hershey-fied.
Doctors and nutrition experts often warn against eating too much candy, especially all the ultra-processed junk that’s high in sugar and saturated fat.
But today, some sweet news: You don’t need to shun chocolate — in fact, adding a dose of the dark variety to your daily diet may have a whole slew of bodily benefits.
“What makes dark chocolate a unique and rewarding dessert is that there really are some health benefits to it,” Bethany M. Doerfler, a clinical research dietitian at the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Center, told the Washington Post.
1. Chocolate can help keep you young
Dark chocolate is rich in theobromine, a bitter alkaloid found in cocoa beans. It works as a nervous system stimulant and mood enhancer — and might also keep you biologically young.
One study found this compound could have anti-aging effects. Specifically, people who had higher theobromine in their blood had DNA methylation patterns (tiny chemical tags) attached to DNA that looked younger than their biological age. They also had longer telomeres, the caps on the ends of chromosomes, that normally shorten with age.
Chocolate is also chock full of flavanols, which are known for antioxidant properties of lowering inflammation.
Another study looked at how chocolate could help with “inflammaging” — low grade inflammation that hastens aging over time. They found that chocolate could help drop levels of one pro-inflammatory protein 8.4% each year.
2. Chocolate is good for the heart (and vasculature)
While those helpful flavanols reduce inflammation, they might also reduce oxidation of LDL cholesterol — which can build up as plaque in arteries, raising risk of heart attack or stroke.
That said, milk chocolate doesn’t count — it has too much milk and fat. “Treats rich in added sugar, butter or coconut oil likely raise the risk of heart disease and substituting dark chocolate as the choice is a positive move,” cardiologist Dr. Joel Kahn told Yahoo! Health.
Those flavanols also help your blood vessels dilate, improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure.
3. Chocolate keeps your mind sharp… and mood up
A recent study showed that flavanols can boost alertness, focus and memory within the hour. That said, a dark chocolate bar may not contain enough to make the effects evident — meaning the calories, sugar and fat might outweigh the benefits.
“I do not believe we have enough data yet to recommend [that] consuming dark chocolate is a safe and effective way to improve memory,” neurologist Johnson Moon told Fox News Digital.
However, there are a lot of other compounds in chocolate that work on the brain. Its energizing effect could stimulate cognition, and help thinking by improving blood flow and removing free radicals that can damage cells, a 2022 review found.
It’s also good for your mood. A 2022 study found that dark chocolate could help the gut microbiome, improving mood through the gut-brain axis.
4. Chocolate combats diabetes
A sweet that helps manage blood sugar? It’s not too good to be true. Evidence shows that the more flavanols you eat, the lower your risk of diabetes. Flavanol-rich dark chocolate could be combating oxidative stress, which drives up insulin resistance.
Another study bolsters this, showing that dark chocolate protected against DNA damage, improving fat levels in blood and glucose levels as well as insulin resistance.
5. Chocolate boosts body and joint health
Surgeon Nick Pappas ends his days with “three small pieces of 70% dark chocolate at night after dinner for the anti-inflammatory effect of flavanols as well as to improve satiety.”
The helpful flavanols are back to help with joints. By lowering inflammation, they could soften pain from arthritis and chronic joint pain.
Outside of flavanols, though, chocolate is also rich in iron that can help with anemia, fiber, and magnesium, which can help relax muscles, aid sleep, and soothe anxiety.
Caveat: You need to pick the right kind of chocolate — and the right amount
None of these benefits are associated with milk chocolate — or white chocolate, which is even worse because it contains no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter.
Shoot for chocolates with a 70% or higher percentage of cocoa.
“The higher the cocoa percentage, the greater the amount of antioxidants,” dietitian Alex Lynch told Northwestern Medicine. “As the cocoa percentage increases, the sugar content decreases, making the chocolate taste more bitter but a lot better for your blood sugar and overall health.”
But even dark chocolate has fat and sugar and can be high in calories, which means you can overdo it. Eating too much will outweigh any potential benefits.
Also be careful as it also has caffeine, and can trigger migraines in some people. It also may contain heavy metals, research suggests.
