Chocolate – Good or bad?

Chocolate – Good or bad?

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.

Places to Travel to on Vacation This Spring

Places to Travel to on Vacation This Spring

 There’s many different places around the world you could visit if you want to travel on vacation. Here’s a few good options for the upcoming spring.

Japan

Though Japan is in south-east Asia. During spring the cherry blossoms bloom! And there’s many festivals and spring-based snacks you can try!

            Here’s some things you can do while visiting Japan during the spring:

  • Visit Festivals 
  • Go on a cherry blossom or Okinawa tour
  • Pick strawberries
  • Visit a tea farm or the wisteria tunnel in Kawachi Fuji Garden
  • Ride a bike at a nearby park and enjoy the scenery
  • Try the spring food & snacks like sakura mochi and sakura yokan

Make sure you visit some of the stores to buy some souvenirs and snacks to take home with you to remember your trip!

Cherry Blossom Festival – Tokyo

France

Over in Western Europe you can go and visit Paris, France. where you can see the Eiffel Tower, but there’s also a lot of activities to do in Paris while you visit! Such as:

  • Visiting a cafe to enjoy their food, drinks, and snacks outside on a terrace. Like croissants, macarons, Jacques Genin Chocolates, coffee, and tea.
  • Tour the Grand Louvre
  • Watch some street entertainment
  • Or go on a walk along the Canal St-Martin. 

But don’t forget to visit some stores and bring home a few souvenirs! Like some pastries, clothing, a portrait, or even a book. From a visit to France

Cafe De Flore in Paris, France

Utah

In the Western United States, Utah has the 3rd most national parks, standing with 5.

  • Arches
  • Bryce Canyon
  • Canyonlands
  • Capitol Reef
  • Zion

 All with different qualities.

 Spring is one of the best times to visit one of the national parks! Since you can go hiking, exploring, and take pictures! In Canyonlands, you can go river rafting, biking, and on scenic drives. While in Zions you can go hiking, biking, horseback riding, camping, on  a river trip, or even stargazing.

Arches National Park, Utah

Hawaii

In the North Pacific Ocean, you can visit Hawaii! where you can,

  • Tour a Hawaiian Royal Palace
  • Play A ukulele
  • Have a vendor open you a coconut
  • Try snorkeling
  • Go surfing
  • or even try exotic fruit!

Hawaii has many different islands. Where you can try different things! For example on Oahu, you can go surfing on the beaches, or tour a museum! Hawaii’s shops also have some tropical themed souvenirs you can take home. Like Aloha Shirts, Hawaiian Quilts, Pineapple or even Hawaiian Jewelry!

Oahu Island, Hawaii

Italy

In western Europe you can visit Italy! Italy is the home to many beautiful things, museums, and more! Giving it a variety of things to do. Such as, 

  • Visit the Colosseum
  • Explore the Pantheon
  • Go to one of Italy’s Museums
  • Try the food
  • Look at some of Italy’s famous art in an Art Museum
  • Eat pizza
  • Explore the area
  • See the Leaning Tower of Pisa
  • Look at some of the statues
  • Visit the Valle dei Mulini and see what a world without humans looks like
  • Visit a bookstore

There’s a lot of things to do in Italy, too much than you have time for in a day! So if you go you’d have to schedule your time, or plan extra. So you can see all the wonderful sights on Italy on your bucket list! 

But like all the other areas on this list, there’s souvenirs you can get to remember your trip! Like, ceramics, chocolate, art, jewelry, or a venetian mask! And remember to plan as much time as you need to enjoy Italy to the fullest!

 

Singapore

In south east Asia is another great place to visit, if you want to go far on a vacation trip. Singapore’s beauty and environment is astonishing, and there’s many things you can do there!

You can,

  • Go on a Big Bus tour
  • Explore the breathtaking gardens
  • Celebrate Chinese New Year on February 10th
  • Hop on a traditional bumboat for a Singapore River Cruise
  • If you like heights try the Singapore Sky Cable from Mount Faber to Sentosa Island
  • Go kayaking
  • Visit the international Jazz Festival

Singapore’s unremarkable scenery and incredible activities can make a trip there amazing! And just like the other areas, they have some incredible and unique souvenirs as well. like their Malay Jewelry, Merilion Statues, Snacks, and chocolates!

Singapore Lion City

 

Aerial Arts saved someone from their eating disorder

Aerial Arts saved someone from their eating disorder

In April 2022, a woman named Clare began taking aerial arts classes. She has an eating disorder called AFRID, which involves the avoidance of food and the restriction of one’s diet to just a few specific foods, causing nutritional deficiencies, weight changes, and anxiety. 

Aerial became a safe space for her. She realized what real self-love is, and Aerial just continued to heal the wounds in her mental health. 

She says that throughout her life she didn’t have a good relationship between food and exercise. She suffered from exercise-induced asthma and iron deficiency anemia, and sometimes fainting from mild exertion, while she was growing up.

With aerial arts being a great form of exercise, it also can heal mental wounds. Aerial is said to reduce stress along with better quality of sleep. Aerial became something that Clare could rely on, something that she could do to reduce stress and anxiety.

She started on something as simple as the apparatus pole, and now she can do so much more than just pole. It was something so small and yet it changed her entire life.

After she did aerial she could do things that she couldn’t have done beforehand. Such as hanging out with friends and not feeling exhausted or putting her suitcase in the overhead bin by herself. She says, “ My body actually feels like something I own, not a burden that I must carry.”

Aerial allowed her to be okay with how she is. She knows that her eating disorder isn’t just going to go away, and she knows that if she just wants to eat only one thing, then that’s fine! Aerial made her realize that even with her eating disorder, she still deserves to feel like her body is something that she should be proud of, not ashamed of.

After she took aerial classes she said, “ These days, hunger is accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment. Feeling hungry is a reminder that my body is healing, and it’s something I’ve been able to feel grateful for. “ She realizes that eating isn’t a bad thing and that it’s okay to feel satisfied after you eat a meal.

Aerial helped her discover a new kind of self-love. “Loving not just what my body looks like, but what my body can do.“ Aerial is difficult and pushing through it can be a lot. Yet the result is most definitely worth it.

People say that they would love to try Aerial, but they’re not strong enough. You don’t have to go into aerial being strong, or flexible. You can start from the ground and go up, and up. Nobody says they’re not strong enough to start going to the gym. It takes time to build up strength and flexibility, it doesn’t just appear.

She said that after over two decades of feeling weak that sometimes she struggled opening doors. She says that, “Having total strangers tell me that I’m strong has been one of the most surreal things to hear, and the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.“

Aerial allowed her to get stronger, to break free from her eating disorder. It may not be gone but it can be managed. With Aerial she can manage her eating disorder so much better than she could’ve before. 

She says that she never thought she would be able to eat three meals a day and exercise a few times a week. To others, it doesn’t really mean anything but to her, she can take care of herself and her mental and physical health. And it is her greatest accomplishment. 

Thanks to aerial, she isn’t held back by her body. She doesn’t worry about fainting from mild exertion anymore. She loves what her body looks like, along with what it can do. Not having to worry about it being painful to lie on her stomach, or to feel the pain of being malnourished.

Aerial was the thing that she needed. She found aerial and her burdens just got lighter and lighter, until they weren’t there. 

Of course, nothing heals every single wound, but she says she has never been healthier and she says that she “Truly owes it all to dance.“ Aerial didn’t heal every wound, but it sure did help heal a lot.

She said that, “I believed that exercise was something that could only ever hurt and feel joyless, because for years, that had been my only experience. It was only when I exercised on my own terms that I began to heal from that idea. It turns out that I’m actually a really athletic person, I just hated gym class.“ Aerial made her realize that she was athletic, and exercise isn’t just pain and joyless. Aerial allowed her to find herself, to find her real body, and to love it in any and every single way she could.

Clare struggled through really hard times and yet she managed to do it. With her eating disorder and exercise-induced asthma, it’s hard. It isn’t easy yet she still got through it all. Inspiring isn’t it?

You don’t have to go through hard times just sitting down and doing nothing at all. You can find a calming activity like how she did. It wasn’t something huge or super special, it was just a simple class. 

Because of that simple class that she took, it changed her entire life completely. Despite it being difficult to overcome her hard trials, she did, because of one Aerial class. You can always continue even when the path looks pretty gloomy.

You never can’t do something. It can seem like it, but you can always continue trying. The only one stopping you is yourself. If anything the biggest bully or obstacle is your thoughts. As previously mentioned, you never have to go through these difficult times alone. You can always have someone or a calming activity to help you, to get you through those hard days.

It’s never too late to sign up for dance, or for something you enjoy doing. You don’t need to be strong to start at anything. You go to the gym when you want to be stronger. Everyone can go to the gym, you don’t need to be strong, you can be as weak as a twig and still go. You go to the gym to get stronger, to feel better, to make yourself happy. You do it to meet your goals and expectations, not to fit into society’s expectations.

Now, what’s something that saved you? Could be an activity, a book you read, or maybe something as simple as a friend you made. What saved you? Put your answer down below!

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