Few of us do not enjoy the sweet temptation of chocolate and most of us have fallen in love with this relishing treat right from our childhood. Parents warn children about eating too much of chocolate, the dentist tells you that it is the primary cause of tooth decay and as you grow up, the warnings get even more serious. Heart ailments, galloping sugar levels, bulging waste lines are just some of the undesirable attributes linked to chocolate consumption. But is reality so bad, is there a possibility that chocolate can do some amount of good for your health. To put it lightly, can any health benefit be attributed to chocolate, if so, this can at least wash away a minor degree of guilt that grown ups feel when chewing on these sweet treats. Recent medical research has given a light of hope and things look like getting better but, do not rush for that next helping as yet. We need to understand a few facts and the most important one is to differentiate between cocoa, one of the important ingredients in chocolate and chocolate as a delicious eatable. Cocoa on it's own has a strong smell and is quite bitter and left on it's own would, never tempt anybody. It is the addition of various fats and sweetening agents that transform cocoa into the universal temptress - chocolate. Back to medical research, any benefit attributed to 'chocolate' basically refers to the goodness of cocoa, which happens to be one of the ingredients used to make conventional chocolate.
Researchers have more or less determined that, cocoa can better the condition of the heart and this good news. Ironically, the fatty elements added to cocoa in the process of making chocolate are not so good for your heart. And sugars added to sweeten the cocoa bring their share of health worries too. Technical reports aside, none of us would wish to eat a spoonful of plain cocoa powder, you might end up feeling dry and choked in the throat and probably create some extra acidity in your stomach. Since a lot of research is underway and facts are still to be tested and proved, doctors not yet specifically recommending cocoa or chocolate as a healthy thing. Interestingly you will still hear that, chocolate consumption needs to be curtailed or even eliminated as you grow older. So as we are caught at these confusing cross roads, up comes a dark and handsome here - dark chocolate. It is generally agreed that dark chocolate contains lesser proportions of sweet and fat as compared to conventional chocolate. In fact it is this that, gives dark chocolate that darker shade. But the saga does not end there, so keep reading this report and stay aware of the facts.
When a chocolate manufacturer labels a specific chocolate product as 'dark chocolate', there are no strictly set standards related to the ingredients and their proportion in the final product. So dark chocolate does almost always contain sugars and fats but hopefully, keeps their levels down - not very convincing but a bit comforting. So what this might translate into is, to consume small amounts of dark chocolate if you wish to derive some of the health benefits of cocoa and chocolate. We would say that you should do a survey at the super market products and settle for the dark chocolate that contains the least percentage of sugar and fat. And since these ingredients are not likely to be used in very tiny proportions, you would be advised to control the consumption of dark chocolate.
It is not unlikely that, research will ultimately yield a logical and scientific formula whereby, health cocoa pills or capsules could be produced. These pills would contain the essential goodness of cocoa without, raking in the dangers of sugars and fats. But for now, you might have to keep a check on your chocolate consumption. It is important to discuss with your family doctor before undertaking any dietary activity that is aimed at deriving health benefits - chocolate is no exception.