At last, there’s good news for chocoholics – dark chocolate is good for you!

Like most foods that come from plants, chocolate has many of the health benefits of dark vegetables i.e. antioxidants in the form of flavonols (dark chocolate contains almost 8 times the number of antioxidants than strawberries!). A substance in cocoa helps the body process nitric oxide, a compound critical for healthy blood pressure and cardiovascular health.

These miracle antioxidants and flavonols protect the body from aging, and help reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Flavoonols also help prevent damage that can lead to heart disease. They do this by preventing fat-like substances in the bloodstream from oxidizing and clogging the arteries.

Better still, chocolate stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure and reduces sensitivity to pain, and contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant.

Here is some more good news, especially if you are weight conscious: even though chocolate is still a high-calorie, high-fat food, some of them do not impact your cholesterol. That does not mean go wild – one bar of dark chocolate has around 400 calories, so you need to balance that by eating less of something else. Most of the studies done used no more than 100 grams of dark chocolate a day to get the benefits.

Mind you, swigging down a glass of milk with your favourite bar of choccie could prevent the antioxidants being absorbed or used by your body.

Other foodstuffs containing flavonoids, include red wine, tea, peanuts, strawberries, apples and many other fruits and vegetables.

A While Back
Chocolate history starts in Latin America, where cacao trees grow wild. One legend has it that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl brought cacao to earth and was cast out of paradise for giving it to man as it was meant only for the gods.

In 1000BC, the Olmec were probably the first people to use chocolate in the form of cacao beans. A thousand years later, the Maya prepared chocolate for drinking, but also used it in religious rituals in place of blood. The beans were used as currency: 10 beans would buy a rabbit or a prostitute, while 100 beans would buy a slave.

In 1502, Columbus lost the chance to discover chocolate for Europe. Loading captured loot, he ignored the way the natives scrambled for it. Later, Cortez and his followers tried chocolate and hated it, as without sugar, cacao is fairly bitter.

Eventually, chocolate made its way to Europe, where it was considered a health food and a medicine for curing fevers, cooling the body, aiding in digestion, and alleviating pain. The church also approved it as a nutritional supplement to take while fasting.

The Europeans began adding sugar, and chocolate gained popularity – especially the slight caffeine kick it gave! Solid chocolate did not appear until the 1850s, when an Englishman began adding more cocoa butter, rather than hot water, to cocoa powder and sugar. The world's first solid chocolate was born.

The rest, as they say, is history!