Everyone irrespective of age wants to eat chocolate, chocolate is such a thing that everyone likes, & today’s advertisement world has given such a view that chocolate is an occasion or a chance of happiness. That is why it’s important that we should know its benefits or harms on our body.
Chocolate is basically divided from the seeds of the “Cacao Pod”, which grows like a fruit on the “Theobroma Cacao” plant. We have 2 varieties in chocolate, White chocolate and Dark Choclate. White chocolate contains less than 50% cocoa powder & has added milk compound sugar preservation in it. Whereas dark chocolate contains more than 50% cocoa powder & has very less sugar & other ingredients in it. Lets see how these are beneficial for your liver health.
2 Groups Of Anti-oxidants are present in chocolate : FLAVONOIDS & POLYPHENOLS
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most common and prevalent chronic liver disease in the world, also liver disease is suspected to be the next major lifestyle disease of India. And for such disease you don’t just need medicine but also a long term lifestyle modification and diet and special food items to help your body to heal your organ & i.e is CHOCLATE.
- Dark chocolate contains potent antioxidants that significantly control post-prandial (postprandial) portal hypertension (inside the liver), blood pressure that is associated with impaired vascular function within the liver.
- Chocolate consumption, especially dark chocolate is associated with lowering lipid peroxidation and thereby improving cardiovascular risk.
- Italian researchers from Sapienza University have also found that dark chocolate containing polyphenols NASH can control disease like Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis.
- The research team found that using cacao, which has a high content of polyphenols and antioxidant properties, may help avert NAFLD development by modulating oxidative stress too.
- The research was conducted on NASH Patients, where 2 weeks of chocolate consumption showed a significant drop in oxidative stress.
Other Important health Benefits of Chocolate includes:
- Improvement of cognitive functions – Your abilities like learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering, problem-solving, decision making, and attention
- It is anti-fatigue- It has mild stimulation due to caffeine and theobromine – presence of magnesium reinforces the anti-fatigue effect
- Dark chocolate lifts the mood- Makes you happy by balancing the level of Serotonin
- Protection from free Radicals- which are responsible for protecting body against environmental toxins, antioxidants contain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
- Good for total cholesterol profile: COCOA butter has 2 oleic acid (a monosaturated fatty acid), acid stearic and palmitic acid. Helps control individuals cholesterol by increasing HDL (HIGH-DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN)
- Anti-stress properties: it is a portion of comfort food that boosts your mood, because it contains Magnesium, a relaxing substance and molecules close to endorphins
- Dark chocolate helps to lose weight: Dark choc contains high catechin level – antioxidant that promotes weight loss
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR NEXT WRAPPER OF CHOCOLATE;
- Only Dark Chocolate is healthy – which has more than 70% of COCOA POWDER, Prefer Higher Percentage of cocoa Powder
- DO check Label For Sugar – High Sugar Content is not good at all
- Do Check For Oils in the chocolate- It should have cocoa butter, and not any other oil like sunflower, coconut, or palm oil etc
ONLY DARK CHOCOLATE IS HEALTHY AND NOT WHITE CHOCOLATE !
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