Chocolate Lowers Cancer Risk

One of the best days for chocolate lovers all over the world was the finding that chocolate is good for you…in moderation. For many of us this was a revelation! Chocolate can be found in a number of sweet and savory concoctions. From chocolate chip cookies, cereal, smoothies, coffee drinks, or the ever-present chocolate bar. Chocolate is basically in foods almost everywhere.

It feels like chocolate has been around forever and that’s because it has!

Chocolate has a long history, starting from its use in Mexico prior to the arrival of Columbus to the New World. That chocolate was a little more intense to the palate. What we enjoy today is similar to what was created when sugar was added to it upon its introduction to the European elite in the 1600s.

There are three types of chocolate. The first type of chocolate people are familiar with is white chocolate which many people consider to be anything but chocolate. It actually doesn’t contain cocoa but it does contain cocoa butter, a by-product of the chocolate making process. White chocolate inspires a love or hate reaction from many people. Either you love it or hate it. Either away, you can decide if white chocolate makes the chocolate cut.

Next, there is milk chocolate and dark chocolate. Dark chocolate sticks to basics and has a higher percentage of cocoa, milk chocolate has milk solids added to it. Many people find dark chocolate to be too intense a flavor. But if grocery store shelves are anything to go by, people are enjoying indulging in dark chocolate more and more. Look at some of America’s favorite chocolate treats such as Reese’s peanut butter cups. Reese’s peanut butter cups now have a dark chocolate spin-off.

Perhaps the best news about chocolate is that ingesting it is reported to lower cancer risk. However, that’s only true with specific to dark chocolate with a 70% or more cocoa content.

The wonderful thing about chocolate is that it has a combination of body healthy compounds that are thought to help lower your cancer risk.

There are flavonoids in chocolate. Flavonoids are antioxidants. Antioxidants affect your body on a cellular level. But, I’m not a scientist and this is beginning to feel a bit too complex.

If you want to learn more about chocolate’s cancer fighting properties talk to a nutritionist or a scientist and let them fill your mind with information.

But, if you want to add chocolate to your life, do it as the French do. Have a cup of coffee, which also has its own set of health properties, break off a small piece of chocolate and savor the moment. Have a coffee and a chocolate-filled croissant for breakfast. Or, make a Mexican chocolate mole as an incredibly complex mixture that is delicious with chicken but makes you feel like a scientist when you’re putting it together.

The most important information to know about chocolate is that it is good for you, enjoy it, and to eat it in moderation.