Chocolate for your skin, hair and health.

Dark chocolate is among the countless derivatives of cacao beans. It tastes a little bitter and thus not very popular among many people. But it has many health and beauty benefits to offer which makes it more preferable than the regular varieties of chocolate.

Like its parent fruit, dark chocolate is also packed with potent antioxidants and contains various essential nutrients which help you to stay healthy and beautiful. Powerful antioxidants like flavonoids help avoiding cardiovascular disorders and reduce risks of strokes. In addition, it also works to keep your blood cholesterol level and blood pressure in check. Seamless vision is another health benefit offered by this magical ingredient.

Besides healthcare, dark chocolate has several beauty benefits to offer too. This article is all about the benefits of consuming dark chocolate; skim through the full post and find everything you want to know about it—its skin & hair care benefits as well as helpful tips to select, store and use dark chocolate.

Dark Chocolate: Skin Benefits

1. Dark chocolate is a skin-friendly ingredient that helps keeping your skin healthy, glowing and just flawless. Check out few outstanding benefits of dark chocolate for skin here:

2. As mentioned above, dark chocolate hosts a range of potent antioxidants. These antioxidants protect your skin from free radical damage; keeping it soft, supple and juvenile for long.

3. With great sun protection properties, it shields your skin against detrimental UV rays and thus helps preventing conditions like sunburns and skin cancer.

4. Regular consumption of dark chocolate helps you achieve a smooth, problem free complexion. It also keeps your skin moist and well nourished.

5. Dark chocolate makes an excellent skin-detoxifier in combination with caffeine. It sloughs off the dead skin cells and allows the newly exposed, fresh skin to breathe freely.

6. Stress is a huge beauty bummer. If not checked, it can ruin your entire personality. Dark chocolate boasts wonderful stress-relieving qualities and work wonders in getting you a glowing skin by reducing elevated stress hormones.

Dark Chocolate: Hair Benefits

Dark chocolate is also popular for offering many hair care benefits. Find out some common hair care benefits below:

7. It helps in promoting blood circulation in the scalp which leads to increased growth of healthy, lustrous locks. Thanks to being a circulation-booster, it is also found to be very effective in reducing hair loss.

8. Infused with the goodness of several hair-benefiting ingredients, dark chocolate improves the overall health of your tresses, making them super-glossy and voluminous.

9. With incredible anti-inflammatory properties, it also helps minimizing the odds of getting scalp infections.

Dark Chocolate: Health Benefits

10. Heart diseases: Dark chocolate contains antioxidants such as flavanoids. Antioxidants are the best elements that a body can receive or produce as they have the capacity to prevent ageing by free radicals that can also cause heart diseases.

11. Blood sugar levels: It is hard to believe that a sugar enriched substance can balance the blood sugar levels but it is true! The amount of sugar in dark chocolate does not affect your body much as its glycemic index is low. And the flavanoids that it is enriched with aids the influence that insulin offers on the sugar levels.

12. Cholesterol: It is no myth that cholesterol clogs the veins and arteries and doesn’t let them function normally. But dark chocolate serves to reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) levels in the arteries and heart.

13. Mood improver: Stress is a bad factor and one should steer clear of it as much as possible! The contents of dark chocolate help in the production of endorphins which are produced by the brain cells and are known to alleviate the mood. It stimulates the brain cells and is known to relax a person.

14. Skin Protection: The content of Flavanoids in the dark chocolate has been found to have positive effects on the body. One such effect is providing protection against the harmful UV rays of the Sun.

15. Stroke Prevention: The increased levels of flavanoids like epicatechin are known to protect the brain against strokes. This is found in dark chocolate in a good quantity. The nerve cells of people consuming dark chocolate are less prone to a stroke as compared to people who do not consume dark chocolate.

16 Anemia cure: The flavanoids in dark chocolate also help in curing anemia and providing a treatment to those with a poor diet.

17. Eyesight Improvement: Studies have also shown that the flavanoids in dark chocolate help to improve blood flow to the brain. This further helps improve eyesight also on account of better blood flow.

18. Cognitive function: The cognitive function in the human body is enhanced with the consumption of dark chocolate as it improves the blood flow to the brain.>

19. Blood pressure: Dark chocolate is rich in minerals such as copper and magnesium which are responsible for keeping the blood pressure normal especially in case of people with excessive fluctuation in their BP.

Dark Chocolate: How to Select and Store

A variety of dark-chocolate brands make it a bit difficult to choose the best one. For your ease, I have few helpful tips to offer regarding the selection of dark chocolate below:

• While buying the dark chocolate, look out for the one having smooth, unblemished surface. The chocolate you pick shouldn’t be dull and it must not have any sort of streaks and dots.
• If possible, try to break the chocolate before you pay for it. If it breaks with a clean and firm snap, buy it without hesitation. Also pay special attention to the texture. Never buy it if it’s grainy or overly greasy in texture; rather look for the one with a velvety texture.
• Taste a little chocolate before buying it. Grab it if it has a chocolaty flavour and aroma.
• Store your dark chocolate in a cool, dry, odor-free place. Keep away from direct sunlight.

Dark Chocolate: Usage Tips

• Don’t add water in the chocolate while brewing it as it tends to harden your chocolate. Also make sure to keep all the utensils used for making a chocolate recipe dry, as even a little bit of moisture can ruin your whole recipe.
• Keep the heat under control. Don’t melt chocolate at a very high heat.
• With all the above mentioned dark chocolate benefits, there is no doubt that chocolate lovers should develop a taste for this type of chocolate too! It’s a combination of chocolate and good health. What more can you ask for!

I hope this article on health benefits of dark chocolate helps you take care of your overall health.

Source: www.stylecraze.com