What Makes Dark Chocolate a SuperFood? : SuperFoodsRx

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What Makes Dark Chocolate a SuperFood?

Table of Contents

1.	Overview
2.	What Makes Dark Chocolate a SuperFood?
3.	Chocolate and Blood Pressure
4.	Chocolate and Atherosclerosis
5.	What About the Fat?
6.	Chocolate: Some Buyer’s Tips
7.	Using Chocolate

Yes, there’s the taste … the creamy melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. But when it comes to health, it’s none of the above. It’s the polyphenols. Whoever first thought to smash a yellow, hard-shelled cocoa pod, scoop out the cocoa beans meshed in the pulpy inside, and turn them into one of nature’s most delicious and versatile foods? We can only be grateful. The cocoa beans that yield the chocolate we love come primarily from Africa, Asia, or Latin America. It takes approximately four hundred cocoa beans to make one pound of chocolate. The beans are processed into a sticky paste called chocolate liquor, which is then used to make chocolate products. The humble chocolate bar is the product of cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, and sometimes powdered cocoa, which is combined with sugar, emulsifiers, and sometimes milk. Chocolate is about 30 percent fat, 5 percent protein, 61 percent carbohydrate, and 3 percent moisture and minerals. The magic in the mix as far as health benefits are concerned is the polyphenols, specifically the flavonols.

Flavonols are plant compounds with potent antioxidant properties. Cocoa beans, along with red wine, tea, cranberries, and other fruits, contain large amounts of flavonols. Research is now suggesting that the flavonols in chocolate are responsible for the ability to maintain healthy blood pressure, promote blood flow, and promote heart health.

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What is a “Super Food”?

Well, the most important thing for everyone to know is that superfoods are easy to find in every local supermarket. They’re worth looking for!

These nutritional powerhouse foods are loaded with nutrients crucial to a healthy, long life.

If you can include a variety of them in your diet, everyday, we promise they will change your life!

These foods were chosen because they contain high concentrations of crucial nutrients, as well as the fact that many of them are low in calories. Foods containing these nutrients have been proven to help prevent and, in some cases, reverse the well-known effects of aging, including cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers.

When you click on each superfood you’ll find information including a list of the primary nutrients that elevated them to superfood status.

This is not meant to be a complete list of every single nutrient that food contains, but rather, a list of the high-profile nutrients that have shown health benefits and that are present in that food in sufficient quantity to make a difference. Many of the superfoods have “Sidekicks”. These are foods that are generally in the same category as the flagship superfood and offer a similar nutrient profile.

So click around and find recipes and tips on how to incorporate these foods in your daily diet.

SUPERFOODSRX PRINCIPLES:

Principle 1: SuperFoodsRx- the best diet in the world

Principle 2: Super Foods are whole foods

Principle 3: SuperFoods Rx equals synergy

Principle 4: SuperFoods Rx are simple and positive