Chocolate.
It is one of the most popular types of food anywhere in the world and the subject of so many cravings.
There is just something different about chocolate. For many people – even thinking about chocolate can be pleasurable – and there are plenty of strong chocoholics out there.
But what’s so special about chocolate? More importantly, does chocolate have to be a guilty pleasure or can it offer some health benefits?
The short answer is that there are dark chocolate benefits and it can actually improve your health. Read on to learn about why this is. However, if you are mostly interested in locating some great dark chocolate bars click on the link below.
Want the short answer? Skip straight to the recommended brands!
An Introduction to Chocolate
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree (Theobromoa cacao), which is native to South America and Central America. Cacao is now commonly cultivated in many countries on and around the equator – partially due to the popularity of the final product.
Historical Perspectives
Cacao beans were once so valuable that they were even used as currency and there are indications that cacao was used as early as around 500 AD by the Mayan civilization.
Cacao wasn’t exactly an immediate hit with the Europeans, particularly because they were introduced to unsweetened drinking chocolate, which tends to be very bitter.
With the sweetening of cacao, drinking chocolate became a more popular drink and cacao beans became more common in general. This also led to a lot of experimentation about how to use cacao, eventually leading to the modern form of chocolate that is common today.
In modern times, you can find chocolate just about anywhere, in many different types, brands and flavors. Not only is chocolate itself common, but chocolate flavoring is used in a huge number of things – including both food and non-food products.
In fact, the rising consumption of chocolate along with a range of other factors has led to concerns about a shortage in the supply of cocoa and thus chocolate (1).
Chocolate Varieties
Chocolate can be broken down into three key varieties: white, milk and dark. In all cases, the manufacturing process involves separating out the cocoa bean solids away from the remaining fatty content.
- In the case of milk and dark chocolate, these solids are re-added later on, but for white chocolate they aren’t. Technically speaking, this difference means that white chocolate is actually considered a chocolate derivative rather than actual chocolate.
- For dark chocolate and milk chocolate, the biggest differences are the amount of milk and cocoa present in the chocolate.
- Typically, dark chocolate will often have high cocoa percentages, often ranging from 65% to 90% - which gives the chocolate a more bitter taste overall.
Traditionally, milk chocolate has been the clear favorite among consumers, with more than half of consumers stating that milk chocolate is their first choice:
Data from Mintel, 2013
These numbers are interesting, because they represent a change towards dark chocolate, with more people preferring dark chocolate than ever before. This isn’t actually too surprising. After all, dark chocolate does actually offer some pretty significant health benefits.
This article is a comprehensive overview of dark chocolate, including the outcomes of the latest scientific research about dark chocolate health benefits.
Dark Chocolate Benefits
Blood Sugar and Diabetes
Researchers argue that dark chocolate may help the body to make better use of insulin, allowing for better overall control of blood sugar levels (2). Additionally, dark chocolate has a relatively low GI, meaning that it won’t significantly contribute to blood sugar spikes.
Flavanols in dark chocolate have been linked to decreased blood pressure and improved insulin sensitivity (3). The authors of the study argued that because of this, flavanols from cocoa could offer benefits to cardiovascular health if part of a balanced diet.
However, a study on healthy, overweight and obese subjects found that while polyphenol-rich was associated with improved outcomes (including those related to cardiovascular risk factors), the polyphenol-poor had the potential to create adverse effects (4).
This reinforces the concept that milk chocolate (typically polyphenol-poor) does not have the same health benefits as dark chocolate. It also indicates the importance of high cocoa chocolate where the polyphenols remain intact.
However, one recent study did show that dark chocolate had no impacts on blood pressure (5), suggesting that more research is needed.
It’s also important to note that you can eat dark chocolate even if you have diabetes (6).
- In fact, dark chocolate can be a fantastic way to get a sweet snack and ward off sugar cravings for people with diabetes.
- One study indicated that dark chocolate could help to lower HbA1c levels in children (7).
- Another study indicated a inverse relationship between chocolate consumption and type 2 diabetes (so more chocolate was associated with a lower likelihood of diabetes) (8). But, this outcome was only true for younger men and normal-body-weight men
However, as with everything, diabetics need pay attention to how much dark chocolate they consume, both in terms of sugar and calorie content.
Dark chocolate does not contribute to blood sugar spikes and can help stabilize blood sugar levels – but the same isn’t true for milk chocolate
Cardiovascular Health
Chocolate is high in saturated fat, so it is often assumed that eating chocolate will result in increases in cholesterol.
- However, research indicates that flavanol-rich dark chocolate can lower the level of LDL and increase the level of HDL in the blood, both desirable outcomes (9).
- Another study found similar outcomes when looking at dark chocolate consumption in women affected by normal weight obese (NWO) syndrome (10).
- One comprehensive study examined almost 20,000 participants across a four-year period, looking at their dietary intake. In this study eating chocolate, in general, was associated with a reduction in the risk of heart disease. This outcome was connected to the ability for chocolate to reduce blood pressure (11).
- Many other studies have linked regular consumption of polyphenols from cocoa with improvements in cardiovascular health and reduction in inflammation (12)
In general, the polyphenols in dark chocolate have both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory characteristics, and these can both play a significant role in protecting against cardiovascular disease and other significant diseases (13).
This suggests that dark chocolate may be much more beneficial for improving cardiovascular health than milk chocolate. However, one recent study did show that milk chocolate may also have some potential for reducing the risk of heart disease (14).
It's also important to note that we don't fully understand all of the mechanisms involved in dark chocolate's impact on heart health (15). That isn't surprising, as there are many different compounds in dark chocolate, which creates the potential for a large number of different interactions.
Despite the saturated fat – dark chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce blood pressure, decrease LDL levels and increase HDL levels
Brain Function
Multiple studies have linked dark chocolate to improved brain function.
- An observational study linked the consumption of high amounts of flavanols with increased blood flow in the brain and improved performance and general alertness (16).
- A second study indicated that chocolate could help to promote attention (17).
- An experimental double-blind study on 30 healthy adults found a similar impact, with high amounts of flavanols having a significant positive impact on mental performance (18).
- For older people with impaired blood flow, research also suggests that regular cocoa consumption can improve cognitive functions. Unusually, this research found similar effects for cocoa that was rich in flavanols and for cocoa that was not – suggesting that flavanols were not the factor driving the observed effect (19,20).
- Another study found that high levels of flavanol helped to improve cognition for urban children who were highly exposed to air pollution because of where they lived (21).
However, not all studies agree with this outcome.
- Another study looked at cognition in healthy middle-aged individuals. In this particular study, participants were given dark chocolate drinks for a period of 30 days.
- The dark chocolate drinks contained either 500 mg, 250 mg or 0 mg of polyphenols from dark chocolate.The authors found that there was no significant difference in cognitive performance across the three groups (22).
Overall, the outcomes of these studies suggest that there remains a long way to go before the relationship between dark chocolate (and flavanol) consumption and brain function can be fully understood.
However, there is some indication that dark chocolate may be important for cognition in vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and at-risk children.There even remains the potential for dark chocolate to boost brain function for normal adults, but this is the area with the most conflicting results.
Dark chocolate has the potential to improve brain function – particularly in vulnerable groups – but more research is needed
Mood
In general, people often associate chocolate with being in a good mood. For example, you might eat chocolate when you are feeling down or when something stressful has happened. In fact, many people crave chocolate in challenging situations.
But, does chocolate actually help?
One study looked at this, using dark chocolate drinks containing polyphenols. The study found high doses of polyphenols acted to improve mood overall, contributing to higher levels of calmness and contentedness (23).
Additionally, dark chocolate can help to reduce stress (24,25), which might be why so many of us turn to chocolate when we are stressed.
It’s also likely that dark chocolate (like chocolate itself) improves mood simply because it is a treat and because people expect it to improve their mood. For some people, eating chocolate at a time when they are stressed or down can be a way of subconsciously taking control over their own emotions.
Research links dark chocolate and mood improvements
Disease Risk
Consumption of flavanols (a key compound in dark chocolate) as part of the diet has been associated with a decrease in risk of death from stroke, heart disease and cancer (26).
One element of this is that dark chocolate consumption can act to improve vascular function (27), improve cardiovascular health as a whole (28) and lower blood pressure.
In fact, that last outcome has been found not only in independent studies, but also in a meta-analysis that considered the outcomes of 13 different studies (29).
One of the challenging aspects of studying the relationship of dark chocolate and/or flavanol consumption with cardiovascular health is the calories involved in chocolate.
Often, people who consume chocolate on a regular basis can have a higher level of calorie intake than people who do not or are just less conscious of their health. That can act as a confounding factor in observational studies and even in experimental studies.
Regular dark chocolate consumption can decrease risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke, and improve health overall
Body Function and Performance
As we’ve seen, dark chocolate can offer some protective benefits against disease – although it isn’t a wonder drug. There has also been some interest in whether dark chocolate can help improve metabolism or sports performance.
One study into this area looked at the performance of male cyclists. The authors of the study noted that the consumption of dark chocolate did have impacts on the blood chemistry of the athletes, but there were no significant effects on cycling performance (30).
While the research into this particular topic area has been very limited, the potential for dark chocolate to help in this way is fascinating.
There is little support for the idea that dark chocolate can increase physical performance
Learn More About Dark Chocolate Benefits
The list above highlights many key benefits of dark chocolate. But, the research is ongoing and we're learning more as time goes on. Plus, some areas are more complex and more heavily researched than others.
Because of this, you can check out the articles below for additional details on how dark chocolate can impact health.