The Health Bulletin

Chocolate is certainly a very yummy thing to eat and most of us probably eat too much of it.  Although chocolate is generally considered to be unhealthy, this is largely because of the sugar and fat content.

If you eat quality bitter chocolate you are actually eating something very healthy.  So if you’re thinking about making some easy biscuit recipes from scratch you might want to think about using some dark chocolate for a tasty yet healthy snack.

So why is chocolate healthy you are thinking to yourself?  Well there are a number of healthy aspects of chocolate and the first one is flavonoids which are phytochemicals.   Flavonoids are amazing for many different functions in the body and one of them is to boost the circulatory system.

Please note that this shouldn’t be seen as a green light to start scoffing huge amounts of chocolate per day.  Chocolate isn’t the only source of flavonoids.  Fruit and veg plus green tea are all great sources and they don’t contain the same amount of sugar.

If you are an energetic sort of person who likes to go hill walking or cycling then you can benefit from the energy that chocolate gives you.  You are going to be burning up a lot of calories doing these activities so eating some chocolate isn’t going to be a problem.

If you sit all day in front of the computer or TV then you won’t be burning up anywhere near as many calories.  So if you start to eat a lot of chocolate you will simply put on a lot of weight.

Another issue about chocolate is that it contains a saturated fat called stearic acid.  Generally speaking you would avoid any saturated fats however not all of them are bad.  Stearic acid is actually one of the good ones which might actually help lower cholesterol.  Chocolate also contains Tryptophan, Serotonin and Theobromine which are all good for you too.