For the Love of Chocolate!
Chocolate can make the world go round—well, at least for chocoholics like me. It is a tasty treat enjoyed the world over in many forms, and in some cases has entire amusement parks dedicated to it. Not to mention the Mars factory (distributors of M&M’s and other candies) has just gone solar!
A recent study shows that one long-term belief on the consumption of this sweet food is true: it is a great stress reliever.
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The study found that highly stressed people showed signs of decreasing stress hormones after consuming chocolate every day for 2 weeks. More specifically, they had to eat 1.4 oz (40 g) of dark chocolate—slightly less than a regular Hershey’s bar. The study only included 30 people however, so further research will be needed.
In order to monitor the stress levels, doctors took urine and blood plasma samples from each person at the beginning, middle and end of the 2 weeks. By monitoring these samples, they found lower levels of cortisol and catecholamine.
Interestingly enough, the study was led by one already involved in the world of chocolate: Sunil Kochhar of the Nestle Research Center in Switzerland.
Posted in an issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, the scientists wrote:
“The daily consumption of dark chocolate resulted in a significant modification of the metabolism of healthy and free living human volunteers with potential long-term consequences on human health within only 2 weeks treatment. This was observable through the reduction of levels of stress-associated hormones and normalization of the systemic stress metabolic signatures.”
So many great health benefits have been contributed to the use of chocolate. It provides great circulatory benefits, muscle recovery, and has also been suggested at being useful for preventing coughs and stimulating the brain. There is also the wives’ tale of it being quite a useful aphrodisiac, though that particular use has yet to actually be proven. But as yummy as chocolate may be, there are also downsides, including acne and obesity. Also, be sure your animal friends don’t consume too much of it, for their first taste of chocolate could be their last.
Cocoa comes from the cacao plant, which is not in danger of going anywhere any time soon. If you happen to be craving a piece of chocolate, feel free to indulge yourself, especially in the dark variety. Half a candy bar a day can easily lift your spirits, lower your stress and possibly combat some health issues; just be sure you don’t go overboard!
By Heidi Marshall
Tags: cacao plant, chocoholic, chocoholism, chocolate, cocoa, dark chocolate, health benefits, Nestle, stress relief
The best is raw chocolate, cacao nibs, etc.. not super sweet and very healthy. They’re the bomb dot com.