Does healthy chocolate exist? Learn how to consume this sweetie the right way! 🆙

For some, a great villain; for others, synonymous with pleasure. We are talking, of course, about chocolate, that sweet that is part of everyone's life, for better or for worse. After all, is chocolate good or bad for your health? That's what we're going to explain in this article! Check out!

A brief history of chocolate

Many people don't know but chocolate is native to Latin America, more precisely in Mexico. The first plantations cocoa of the world have been found there and date back over 4.000 years. They were the work of the Olmecs, one of the first civilizations on the continent, the first to turn cocoa into chocolate.

Historians have come to the conclusion that for this civilization, chocolate was ingested as a beverage during the cacao ceremony; besides medicine, therefore, was the sacred cocoa. Centuries later, the Mayans, also in the same region, made chocolate and called it the drink of the gods.

Does healthy chocolate exist? Learn how to consume this sweetie the right way! — JanPietruszka de Getty Images Pro / Canva

It was the Mayans who invented the name we use to this day, because their drink was called “xocolatl”, which meant “bitter water”. The Aztecs, another civilization in the region, used cocoa beans as a bargaining chip, as they believed they were gifts from the god Quetzalcoatl.

It is estimated that it was in the year 1528 that the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés took chocolate from Latin American territory to Spain. It was only in this country that they started to add sugar or honey to the drink, as cocoa is naturally quite bitter.

Quickly, then, the drink began to become popular among the wealthy Spaniards and then among the nobles across Europe. In this way, the recipe from that moment on was being worked on to arrive at what we know today as chocolate.

Why is chocolate bad for you?

First of all, it must be explained that eating chocolate is not bad for your health. There are two problems with consumption: eating in large quantities and the way it is manufactured, with additional items that make the product unhealthy. Let's, however, understand in more detail!

The main villains in chocolate are sugar and fat, which can make it very caloric. Consuming a standard-sized chocolate bar daily, for example, can make a person gain two to four pounds, depending on their metabolism.

Excessive consumption and large amounts can causeair problems such as liver overload, nausea, feeling sick, gastroesophageal reflux, food poisoning and gastritis. On warmer days and in children, these problems are usually stronger.

In addition to these immediate problems, excessive consumption of chocolate can cause long-term problems. The main one is that, as it has a lot of sugar, chocolate contributes to the development of insulin resistance, which causes pre-diabetes and then diabetes.

In this disease, excess blood sugar can affect the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and blood vessels, among other very negative consequences.

Fat, in turn, has three main very negative consequences. It raises LDL, known as bad cholesterol, and lowers HDL, known as good cholesterol. In addition, it raises triglycerides. These three problems cause situations such as atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), stroke, heart attack, among others.

But don't worry, dear chocoholic, because chocolate doesn't need to be completely eliminated from your daily life! In a certain amount and of certain types, chocolate can bring benefits to our life. Are you doubting? Check out!

What are the benefits of chocolate?

As explained in the previous topic, the problem is not in the consumption of chocolate itself, but in the quantity and quality of the product ingested. According to experts, 25 g of chocolate a day is good for health, because of the properties of cocoa. So, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the healthier!

In addition, cocoa has bioactives with antioxidant action, which help reduce the oxidation of LDL particles, bad cholesterol and, because it has catechins, it is considered cardioprotective, as it reduces blood pressure and inhibits the uptake of bad cholesterol.

Also as positive points, chocolate has anti-inflammatory action and its polyphenols have cognitive and stimulating action, releasing neurotransmitters.

ATTENTION: all these benefits, as will be detailed in the following topic, are exclusive to chocolates that have at least 60% cocoa, that is, the so-called bitters.

types of chocolate

A lot of people think that all different types of chocolate share the same benefits and harms, but that's not true. Therefore, each of them has its positive and negative points, which will be explored below:

White Chocolate

It is the one that has the most harm, therefore it is the most harmful to health. This is because it has the most fat and little or no cocoa mass, as it is made with cocoa butter, milk, sugar and other ingredients. So it doesn't have any chocolate properties.

Milk chocolate

The most popular, milk chocolate, is made with sugar, milk and other ingredients. In our country, the regulatory agency Anvisa requires that all chocolates manufactured here have at least 25% cocoa solids, but this value is very close compared to the minimum 60% for the candy to be healthy.