Chocolate Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Ghosts and gobblins, pirates and princesses, ghouls and pumpkins ... oh, my, what a cast of characters and creatures that knocked on our doors!

There are amazing health benefits of chocolate. First and foremost, chocolate is an extremely powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants help rid the body of free radicals, molecules that run amok in your body causing aging and disease. Antioxidants bond to free radicals and remove them from your body through digestion and other means. You may of heard of many of the best antioxidants such as red wine, green tea, cherries, pomegranate, and blueberries. Dark chocolate is far ahead of them in the race for the highest antixodiant rating. The USDA published a chart of antioxidant foods measured in ORACs (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity Units). For every 100 grams, dark chocolate has 13,120 ORACs, and blueberries have only 2,400. Antioxidant-rich diets have been linked to a lowered risk of heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, cancer, cholesterol problems, arthritis, Alzheimer's and more. Being that chocolate is chock full of antioxidants, it's actually good for you. So why is it widely believed that chocolate is bad for you? It is the sugar and milk products along with the processing of the chocolate that is bad for you. Eating chocolate that has more cacao and less to no milk products, and made with natural sugars are better. Click on the link for Healthy Chocolate located in the sidebar for more information. You will be in for a delightful treat with no tricks!