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🍫 Mike's Nutrition Tip #2: Is Chocolate Healthy For Seniors?
The Health Benefits of Chocolate
Chocolate is full of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. It is an antioxidant rich superfood. Cocoa actually beats other “superfoods”, which you’ve probably seen highly praised in articles or around your health food stores and supermarkets, for antioxidant capacity. Like acai, pomegranate, cranberry and blueberry.
I believe chocolate, (the right kind), is a great addition to any healthy eating plan. 🍫
Me, a Health Professional, telling people it's actually good for health. Sounds a little crazy right?
You're probably thinking: "Isn’t this meant to be a big ‘no, no’ from a health perspective"
Well, in my opinion, it’s not!
Although many other Health Professionals and Exercise Trainers would disagree with me and tell you to stay away from chocolate for your health, I have to say I disagree with this. :)
Unless you tell me you wanted to get an extra skinny bikini body (which I'm yet to hear this in my line of work) I'm not going to tell you to stop eating chocolate!
I’m 100% FOR eating a little chocolate for it’s health benefits... And because it tastes good!
Now, I’m not saying to go crazy on all chocolate you can get your hands on!
Chocolate IS still high in fat and sugar and therefore calories. And eating an excess of calories WILL cause you to put on weight. (It only takes a small amount of chocolate to get a whole lot of calories).
And we want to make sure we are eating the RIGHT type of chocolate.
However…
Chocolate is not the devil of foods which so commonly gets a bad rap, and I could think of hundreds of foods to cut out of your diet for good health. A block of good quality dark chocolate, is not one of them. (See my article on health eating here).
The Health Benefits of Chocolate
Chocolate contains healthy fats, vitamins and minerals (including magnesium, iron, zinc and manganese).
It is also an antioxidant rich superfood. Cocoa actually beats other “superfoods”, which you’ve probably seen highly praised in articles or around your health food stores and supermarkets, for antioxidant capacity. Like acai, pomegranate, cranberry and blueberry.
Being full of healthy nutrients, chocolate has been shown that it can:
Decrease stress and inflammation
Protect against UV damage
Protect from disease fighting free radicals
Potentially prevent cancer
Improve heart health
Improve blood pressure and blood sugar
Improve overall cholesterol profile
Improve cognitive function
And most importantly.. It tastes good and makes us happy! Happiness is health!
So you see there any many health benefits to eating chocolate, which is why I sometimes eat a little every day!
Now as I said, we don’t want to be eating the junk filled chocolate bars, we want to be eating the good quality stuff.
The Chocolate Bar I Recommend:
Dark chocolate is a healthier option over milk chocolate. This is due to the higher cocoa, which means more nutrients and less sugar. The higher the percentage of cocoa the higher the nutrients and the less amount of sugar.
However, this still doesn't mean a good quality milk chocolate is necessarily bad for us!
A great chocolate bar is the Lindt dark chocolate block (70% and up). You can find the one with the right amount of sweetness for you, without being too bitter. Some people like their chocolate very dark!
If you don't eat dark chocolate because you prefer milk chocolate, it may take some time to adjust to it.
I recommend this chocolate because there are no added chemicals or other unhealthy ingredients which don't need to be in our chocolate. It is simply cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla. All natural ingredients. (This may be different in other countries, so check this if not in Australia).
Lindt 78% Chocolate Bar Ingredients.
There are other great bars out there also, but why I recommend the Lindt bar is because it is very easy to get hold of. I think every supermarket sells it.
These bars are a little more expensive than other chocolate bars, because cheaper ingredients aren't used, but it's worth the little extra price for your health.
I am one to crave chocolate and I eat two pieces usually a day.
So in summary, it’s ok to eat good quality chocolate, don’t go overboard and enjoy life! :)