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Dark chocolate not only tastes good, it's good for you, too. It promotes heart health by lowering blood pressure and boosting your mood.
By Lynne Meredith Schreiber
Photos by Scott Little
Food styling by Greg Luna
“Dark chocolate saves lives,” says Arthur Agatston, M.D., a preventive cardiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and an admitted chocoholic. He bases his claim on a 2006 Scandinavian study, which showed that consuming small amounts of chocolate with 70 percent or more cocoa content—and without fattening mix-ins such as caramel, butter, or too many nuts—significantly diminished the likelihood of heart attacks.
Derived from the cacao plant, dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which help keep blood vessels clear and flowing, says Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic.
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