Somewhere last week I was chatting with Rob. One a certain moment the conversation turned to chocolate. Rob, as so many others, loves chocolate. And that includes me as well. You can wake me up in the middle of the night for good chocolate.
He asked me if I knew if the statement that “chocolate makes you happy” is correct. Well, that is an easy question to be answered… Yes, it does. Specially dark chocolate does!
Dark chocolate contains enylethylamine, which improves athletic performance, helps against depression, helps with weight loss and improves mood and attention.
Also dark chocolate contains a high amount of cocoa and that contains phenylalanine, which is also known as the “happiness hormone”. Your body creates from phenylalanine dopamine, which gives you a feeling of happiness. Dopamine also allows you to make better choices and increases your libido (it seems a bit more for males as for females).
Apart from that, cocoa is very rich on vitamins and minerals.
It contains vitamin A and helps increase your resistance.
Vitamin B 1, 2, 6 & 11 give you energy, is good for your nervous system, digestion, skin, eyesight, resistance and heart. It also supports the creation of red blood cells.
Further more it contains Sodium, Phosphate, Calcium, Potassium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium and Zinc, which supports our health and well being in many ways.
Pure chocolate is also good for your cardiovascular system. In this way, dark chocolate fights blood and vascular diseases and can lower your cholesterol.
So yes, dark chocolate is healthy. But as we say over here in The Netherlands “Overdaad schaadt” (too much of something is harmful).
And here also lies the danger of chocolate. One or two pieces of a dark chocolate are absolutely no problem, on the contrary really.
But… “Oh, just a third piece can not be that bad!” “Ah, one more for just this time”. And before you know it the complete chocolate bar is gone.
What helps is for me very well is that after I had some chocolate, I put it on a place out of sight and direct reach (so I really have to get up from my chair and walk to another room to get it).
Oh, just to be very correct: The featured photo of this article is not dark chocolate at all, but these seashell chocolates look very nice. The second photo in the article is indeed dark chocolate.
So chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains elements that can improve your mood and “make you happy”. It also contains some health improving ingredients. And it has a very good taste.
Just go for dark chocolate and don’t eat too much of it and all will be fine 🙂