When you want to have the occasional sweet treat, you don’t necessarily need to justify it with health benefits—but it’s still great news when those benefits exist. Dark chocolate stands out as one of the best desserts you can choose, full of antioxidants called flavanols that confer a whole host of health gains. Though it’s best to enjoy it in moderation—it’s still relatively high in calories, sugar, and fat—you may in fact be making a wellness-conscious decision by incorporating high-cocoa, polyphenol-rich chocolate into your regular routine. Ahead, learn about the seven biggest dark chocolate health benefits.
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1 | It can make you happier.
ShutterstockYou’re not imagining it: Eating chocolate really can make you happier. A 2022 study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry compared the psychological effects of eating 85 percent chocolate (DC85), 70 percent chocolate (DC70), or no chocolate over a three-week study period and found that consuming 85 percent dark chocolate could boost mood significantly.
“Mood states were measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Daily consumption of dark chocolate significantly reduced negative affect in DC85, but not in DC70," according to the study.2 | It can improve your heart health—including cholesterol and blood pressure.
iStockAnother study looked at how consuming dark chocolate affects heart health, focusing primarily on its impact on cholesterol and blood pressure. Subjects ate one bar of dark chocolate with plant sterols (PS) two times per day for four weeks then switched to a bar without plant sterols for an additional four weeks.
“Serum lipids and other cardiovascular markers were measured at baseline and after four and eight weeks,” the study authors explain. “Blood pressure was measured every two weeks. Regular consumption of the PS-containing chocolate bar resulted in reductions of 2.0 and 5.3 percent in serum total and LDL cholesterol, respectively.”
They also found that consuming cocoa flavanols reduced systolic blood pressure at week eight. “Results indicate that regular consumption of chocolate bars containing PS and CF as part of a low-fat diet may support cardiovascular health by lowering cholesterol and improving blood pressure,” the study says.
3 | It can help you get your essential vitamins and minerals.
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According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), dark chocolate also contains important vitamins and minerals, which can help you reach your nutritional goals. A 100-gram bar of dark chocolate with 70–85 percent cocoa contains 96 percent of the daily value (DV) for copper, 66 percent of the DV for iron, 57 percent of the DV for magnesium, and 39 percent of the DV for fiber.
However, this amount contains several servings and would also contain roughly 500 calories.
4 | It may slash your stroke risk.
ShutterstockA meta-analysis reviewing three studies on chocolate consumption and stroke found that eating dark chocolate could also cut your stroke risk in half. The researchers suggest that this could be because chocolate is packed with antioxidants known as flavonoids, which are known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-atherogenic, and antit-hrombotic properties that can decrease the risk of ischemic stroke in particular.
While this is encouraging, the researchers note that their study does not establish causality. “More research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others,” said study author Sarah Sahib, BScCA.5 | It can improve your memory and cognition.
ShutterstockThere’s also research to support the notion that dark chocolate can boost your brain health. A 2016 study in the journal Appetite says that the cocoa flavanols and methylxanthines found in chocolate were positively associated with cognitive performance.
“Habitual chocolate intake was related to cognitive performance, measured with an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests,” the study authors write. “More frequent chocolate consumption was significantly associated with better performance on the Global Composite score, Visual-Spatial Memory and Organization, Working Memory, Scanning and Tracking, Abstract Reasoning, and the Mini-Mental State Examination.”
6 | It can protect your skin.
ShutterstockAnother study—this one published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology in 2009—looked at how chocolate consumption affected the skin health of 30 healthy subjects. They assigned half to eat 20 grams of high-flavanol (HF) chocolate, and the other half to eat the same amount of low-flavanol (LF) chocolate.
“Our study demonstrated that regular consumption of a chocolate rich in flavanols confers significant photoprotection and can thus be effective at protecting human skin from harmful UV effects. Conventional chocolate has no such effect," the study noted.
7 | It can help you stick to your goals.
iStockFinally, a 2015 study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that eating dark chocolate could actually help you reach your goals.
“This research tests the idea that goal-pursuit that requires extended inhibition of desires, such as weight loss and financial saving, can benefit from including planned hedonic deviations in the goal-striving plan,” the researchers explain. Building in a deviation from restrictive goals—in this case, having a sweet treat with ample health benefits—could help you regain self-regulation, motivation, and positivity, “which all contribute to facilitating long-term goal-adherence.”
