Chocolate & health: study reveals surprise benefits
The Vitl Nutrition Team / 2 May 2018
As if you needed another excuse...
Dark chocolate has long been hailed for its high-flavonoid and lower-sugar content but researchers are now beginning to recognise that there are health benefits in the regular consumption of the right kind of chocolate.
Two new studies have highlighted how dark chocolate can contribute to your health and their results are so intriguing that they will be presented at the Annual Meeting of Experimental Biology this year, which will see a guest list of more than 14,000 scientists.
Researchers looked at how consumption of 70% cacao chocolate impacts the activity certain parts of the brain and of immune cells, focusing on biological markers for inflammation. The researchers found that consumption of high-cacao chocolate affects genes involved in brain cell signalling and sensory perception. Such activity has been associated with brain hyperplasticity, which is where the brain is more receptive to learning, where your brain is more receptive to learning, which is good news for muscle memory, strength, explosiveness, and endurance.
Chocolate consumption also boosted immune cell activity, and the high-flavonoid content was shown to reduce inflammation.
The findings suggest that high-cacao chocolate could benefit your thinking, mood, immune system and more! So if ever there was a reason to treat yourself to this delicious dairy-free chocolate mousse - this is it!
More delicious chocolate recipes from the VITL Life blog:
The Vitl Nutrition Team
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