We all know about the treat that is called chocolate. While some people think, “Yes! This is the simplest treat ever that no one could ever ruin!” others think, “Ewww. This is not good. Why would people ever eat this!?” So today we are finally deciding whether or not chocolate is delicious or nasty.
Let’s start with the good things. First, chocolate can improve your blood flow and lower your blood pressure, however, you can only get those benefits if you eat dark chocolate or dark cocoa powder which is the least liked chocolate. Second, dark chocolate is good for your brain! Studies show chocolate increases brain blood flow, oxygen levels, and nerve function. So basically if you eat some chocolate occasionally, your brain health will improve little by little! Lastly, chocolate can improve people’s mental health, like emotions. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for mood regulation and cognitive function, so it’s no surprise that chocolate can immediately boost your mood on a bad day! Research has shown that those who eat dark chocolate have significantly decreased chances of developing depression.
Now that we have covered the good side of chocolate, let’s travel to the darker side. There are many bad things about chocolate. People just don’t really bring them up because it is sort of uncommon to not like chocolate since so many of the things that we do involve chocolate, such as Valentine’s day, Halloween, and even just national chocolate day. But never the less, we are going to exploit the negatives of chocolate. First, chocolate has high fat and sugar content. Its consumption has even been associated with acne, obesity, coronary artery disease, and diabetes.
Next, chocolate can have bacteria on it. Kristen Numez said, “25% of chocolate samples had bacterial contamination when examined during a study, featured in a 2015 article, in the journal ‘Food Control’. Interestingly, the cocoa beans showed little contamination, so the contamination occurred during processing. Enterobacteriaceae on the workers’ hands revealed the source.” So when you eat chocolate, you don’t really know what you’re consuming. And Finally, chocolate has a lot of undeclared allergens in it. Food allergies affect millions of people. Undeclared allergens often trigger product recalls. An April 2017 paper in the Journal of Food Protection showed that many chocolate bars contain undeclared allergens like milk and nuts. These foods can cause severe reactions in some people. So overall, Chocolate can be unhealthy because of its high fat and sugar, it can be dirty with bacteria from all over and it can have undeclared food allergens and make people sick.
So, in this article we have listed the good and the bad things about chocolate. We haven’t really decided if chocolate really is good or bad, so it is up to you and your personal opinion.
