“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”- Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist.

When I was little, I didn’t think I liked chocolate too much. Then I became a teenager and chocolate became my best friend. Whenever something went wrong or I felt stressed or even just bored I began to crave the stuff. Warranted chocolate binge eating is far from healthy but emerging research suggest a bit of chocolate a day might result in some unique health benefits.

Before you drop what you’re doing and plunder the candy section of the nearest supermarket, it’s important to note that a lot more goes into the average chocolate bar than pure chocolate.

“Most commercial chocolate has ingredients that add fat, sugar and calories. And too much can contribute to weight gain, a risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.” —Mayo Clinique.

Most nutritionist agree on dark chocolate as the healthiest and most beneficial of the varieties. The source of dark chocolate’s recent fame among health culture is cacao. Research on cacao (also known as cocoa) revealed an ability to increase heart health, lower the risk of diabetes, lower blood pressure and even improve brain functions.

The brain function study in the Mayo Clinic article found chocolate to increase the blood flow to the head after a period of daily chocolate consumption. This in turn led to participants displaying better problem solving and memory skills.

“Sorond says the chocolate appeared to boost the brain’s blood supply with an 8.3 percent increase in blood flow after 30 days of consuming the cocoa. She says this is a phenomenon known as neuro-vascular coupling, which means there’s a close link between increased blood flow and improved activity of neurons.” —KSL.com.

These benefits directly contrast those listed for the consumption of commercialized chocolate. The two key factors to the healthy addition of chocolate into one’s diet appear to be the quality and the quantity of the product consumed.

Quality

Since the beneficial quality of chocolate is cocoa, it would make sense to purchase a brand with as much of the stuff as possible. Unfortunately, cocoa quite literally tastes like bitter chalk. The more cocoa the less appetizing a bar of chocolate will taste. Manufactures add sugar and milk for this reason and though better tasting the finished product often counteracts any benefits.
Discretion and some research should be able to yield a chocolate that has high amounts of cocoa and sufficient but relatively low amounts of additives.
Another way to reap all of the benefits of cocoa without the add-ons of chocolate would be to put cocoa powder in coffee or in warm milk. The bitter flavor would go virtually unnoticed in coffee and would form a hot chocolate mixture in milk.

Quantity

Moderation! Moderation! Moderation! Health culture is practically screaming it. It’s something most of us could benefit from getting better at.

Moderation makes eating chocolate somewhat legal in the modern definition of healthy. However, sometimes it’s difficult to catch a firm grasp on exactly what moderation means. After all, my idea of moderation may be very different from your idea, which is different than your friend’s idea. Of course different bodies have different requirements but it often becomes too easy to over or under moderate.

What I am trying to say is that knowing a general idea of the recommended amount goes much further than claiming moderation.

Mercola sets the target amount of chocolate necessary to reap the benefits and ward off the unnecessary drawbacks at 6.7 grams per day.

“According to researchers, 6.7 grams of dark chocolate per day — a bit less than half a bar a week — represents the ideal amount for a protective effect against inflammation and cardiovascular disease.” –Mercola

You don’t have to measure out exactly 6.7 grams a day. However if you’re eating three chocolate bars a week there might be a problem with your concept of moderation.

Combine these two elements of quantity and quality together and you are ready to add a little bit of dark chocolate into your diet. Hopefully this will help to increase brain function and decrease the risk of disease as well as satisfy one’s sweet tooth.

The choice is yours. Will you be nutty about health?

To see more from Health Nut, read Health Nut: The Full truth about Low Fat.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @skylerklee and via Email: Skyler Lee.