Proven Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

1. Very nutritious

If you buy quality dark chocolate with a high cocoa content, then it’s quite nutritious.

It contains a decent amount of soluble fiber and is loaded with minerals.

A 100-gram bar of dark chocolate with 70–85% cocoa contains:

11 grams of fiber

67% of the DV for iron

58% of the DV for magnesium

89% of the DV for copper

98% of the DV for manganese

In addition, it has plenty of potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium.

2. Powerful source of antioxidants

ORAC stands for oxygen radical absorbance capacity. It’s a measure of the antioxidant activity of foods.

Basically, researchers set a bunch of free radicals (bad) against a sample of a food and see how well the antioxidants in the food can disarm the free radicals.

The biological relevance of ORAC values is questioned, as it’s measured in a test tube and may not have the same effect in the body.

However, it’s worth mentioning that raw, unprocessed cocoa beans are among the highest-scoring foods that have been tested.

3. May improve blood flow and lower blood pressure

The flavanols in dark chocolate can stimulate the endothelium, the lining of arteries, to produce nitric oxide.

One of the functions of NO is to send signals to the arteries to relax, which lowers the resistance to blood flow and therefore reduces blood pressure.

Many controlled studies show that cocoa and dark chocolate can improve blood flow and lower blood pressure, though the effects are usually mild.