More About Chocolate’s Health Benefits!

Private Home Care is glad to share more about dark chocolate in honor of National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Chocolate supports brain health! One study of healthy volunteers showed that eating high-flavanol cocoa for five days improved blood flow to the brain. That, coupled with antioxidant properties, has shown to significantly improve cognitive function in elderly people with cognitive impairment. Additionally, cocoa contains stimulant substances like caffeine and theobromine, which can provide short term help with memory and focus. Improvements in brain health may be due to the high levels of flavonoids in dark chocolate, which in the long term has found to have accumulated in regions of the brain responsible for learning and memory.

Science officially supports what we have known all along – dark chocolate is a mood booster! Research has shown chocolate stimulates neural activity in areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward, which in turn decreases stress and improves your mood.

Improves skin- The bioactive compounds in dark chocolate may also be great for your skin. The flavonols in cocoa can protect against sun damage, improve blood flow to the skin and increase skin density and hydration. The minimal erythemal dose (MED) is the minimum amount of UVB rays required to cause redness in the skin 24 hours after exposure. In one study of 30 people, the MED more than doubled after consuming dark chocolate high in flavanols for 12 weeks. Before going on vacation to a sunny place, have some dark chocolate for a while beforehand (in moderation of course!).

Private Home Care encourages consuming dark chocolate in a healthy way! Check out this healthy chocolate cupcake recipe! We like this one because it uses oat flour (which is high in fiber and makes it gluten free), protein added from eggs, coconut sugar instead of refined sugar, and coconut oil instead of butter. Each cupcake only has 167 calories!