Although it's evident that there are those out there that abuse eating this delicious cocoa product, there have been many chocolate health benefits established in the past, and a recent study shows that eating about two bars a day actually lowers the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
Heart Journal has recently published a study from the Scottish University of Aberdeen on chocolate's health benefits, entitled "Habitual chocolate consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease among healthy men and women," in a grander study focused on finding the different connections between long-term health and a person's diet.
According to Forbes, the chocolate health benefits study reviewed the experiences of 21,000 adults of both sexes, all of who participated in the bigger EPIC-Nortfolk study, to see what kind of response their bodies had to moderate consumption of chocolate.
The Mirror reports that the study on chocolate's health benefits found that 100 grams of chocolate a day (which is about two Hershey bars) could actually cut the risk of dying from strokes and heart disease by more than a fifth, although other risks are present, considering processed 100 grams of chocolate would pack 530 calories, 56 grams of sugar and 30.5 grams of fat, potentially leading to weight gain - which in itself is bad for cardiovascular health.
Interestingly enough, those who ate more chocolate were found to be younger, have lower weight and waist-to-hip ratio.
While the study doesn't specify what causes these newly discovered chocolate health benefits, it could be assumed that the best way to go about this new finding is by eating this quantity of black chocolate instead of the one processed with milk.
"What we observed is the association between the habitual consumption of chocolate, to a maximum of 100g a day, linked to a reduction in incidence of stroke and cardiovascular disease over longer-term follow-up, in this study 12 years," said professor Phyo Myint, from the School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Aberdeen to BBC.
However, after this chocolate health benefits study, Myint still wouldn't recommend increasing daily intake of chocolate, particularly to overweight patients.
