Chocolate has always been a synonym for irresistible flavour, be it bar, candy, cakes or puddings.The story of this amazing product starts with cocoa tree. This tree bears fruits which contain beans and these beans are cocoa beans. This delicious sweet ingredient has been proven to have medicinal value as well. The rich, velvety and mouth melting texture of this amazing product, is also used for treatment of various medical issues.
Good for Heart Health
Cocoa has possess certain extraordinary compounds which has shown healing properties in heart diseases.
Rich in antioxidants, dark chocolate is rich in phenolic compounds like flavonoids. flavonoids class has following compounds like
Catechins – Catechins in cocoa are highest among all the foods, 108mg in 100gm
Epicatechin – act as a vasodilator, regulates nitric oxide production in body.
Procyanidins – derived from Catechin and Epicatechin
Theobromine– It has stimulating effect on central nervous system
These catechins helps in treating heart disease, causing a vasodilation effect on capillaries thus improves blood pressure also.
Studies have proved that it protects against thrombosis, Increases good cholesterol and reduces bad cholesterol.
Improves brain function
It has shown anti inflammatory effects in neurological conditions. useful in treating parkinson’s, alzimer and neuronal problems. As per studies flavonoids in cocoa increases blood flow to brain, which has shown improving dementia and stroke.
Improves diabetes– It has shown results in insulin resistance and helps in improving diabetes by reducing oxidative stress in the body.
Good for Skin Care
Enhances your beauty by keeping your skin hydrated healthy and glowing. Cocoa butter is the main ingredients in the moisturizer. It protects the skin against the UV damage and found to increase the dermal blood flow which leads to sufficient nourishment delivery to the skin.
Helps in depression and stress
A powerful stress buster which releases serotonin in body, a hormones which is a mood alleviater.
No doubt we all are a big fan of chocolate.
As a pre workout
Just try it as pre work out snack along with a fruit. It’s like a booster dose of energy . Choose dark chocolate with more than 70% coco content.
Increases Stamina and Endurance– It increases endurance for sports like swimming, running.
Things we should know about Dark Chocolate–
Different types of chocolates like white, milk and dark have different proportion of flavonoids. Also it depends upon the processing time, longer the processing time for the cocoa bean, lesser is the antioxidant levels.
Nutritional Info oz(28gm)
Calories-170
Carbohydrates-13gm
Fat- 12gm
Saturated fat-7gm
Trans fat->0.1gm
Protein 2.2gm
Fibre-3.1gm
Cholesterol-1mg
Calcium-20.7mg
Potassium 203 mg
Sugar-6.8gm
Dark Chocolate Hot Coco Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
20gm dark chocolate
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream,
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1-2 pods of cardamom(optional)
2 tsp sugar or stevia
Heat the milk in pan. Add dark chocolate, stir it.Remove from heat, add cream,cinnamon and stevia.
Smoothies For Break fast
Cocoa- Banana- Strawberry Smoothie
Banana-1 No
Straw berry- 5 No
Cocoa powder- 2 tsp
Dark chocolate- 2 pieces
Vanilla ice cream- 1 scoop
Cinnamon Powder- A pinch
Low fat Milk – 200 ml
Almond crush – 1 tbsp
Sugar- as per taste
Mix all the ingredients with milk and add vanilla ice cream in grinder to make creamy smoothie.
Dark Chocolate in Beauty treatment
Face pack for dry dull skin
Dark chocolate- 2tbsp
Honey- 1tsp
Milk- 2 tsp
Olive oil- 1tsp
Mashed Banana- Small piece
Mix all the ingredients well and apply on face for that extra glow and shining skin.
My Diet Planet 