 The amazing benefits of dark chocolate. Okay, when I say eat chocolate every single day, I mean it, and you should be eating it too. Why? Well, dark chocolate is loaded with polyphenols, which as you know are incredibly important for good health. And the polyphenols in chocolate may be one of the most perfect combination delivery devices of getting the right polyphenols into you in a delicious package that's ever been discovered. In fact, numerous studies have proven the beneficial health effects of consuming dark chocolate. Take the study on the Kuna Indians, for example. The Kuna Indians are an isolated tribe who live on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Hypertension is incredibly uncommon in this group, even among the elderly. But when Kuna people migrate to urban environments and change their diet, their rates of high blood pressure soared. Now, notably, their traditional intake of cacao, cocoa, as the beverage was very high. They actually drank more than five cups daily of either homegrown cacao or Colombian cocoa powder, which is rich in polyphenols that are called flavonols. Now, interestingly enough, the flavonol urinary levels of the island dwelling Kuna were significantly higher and their rates of death from serious illness were significantly lower than their counterparts the same tribe living in urban centers. There's a very famous nitric oxide study. Now, nitric oxide is becoming famous as one of the main compounds that dilates our blood vessels. And I have a saying in my office that the more flexible your blood vessels are, the longer you live and the longer you live well. So if you want long life, lived well, you want flexible blood vessels. And nitric oxide is one of the most important compounds for getting that flexibility in blood vessels. In fact, nitric oxide, the discoverer of nitric oxide was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this discovery. Now, there's one 15-day study in 16 people showed that consuming 30 grams of dark chocolate daily led to significant increases in nitric oxide levels in the blood. Wow! Dark chocolate, more nitric oxide, more flexibility. No wonder you're going to live longer and better. But there's an additional benefit of chocolate that actually may play into this. It's going to have a positive effect on emotions. Now, many women identify this with this immediately. There's actually been a study on the feelings of calmness in a randomized double-blind study. 72 healthy middle-aged participants received a dark chocolate drink mix containing either 500 milligrams, 250 milligrams, or 0 milligrams of polyphenols in the dark chocolate drink. And I'll tell you how you can get rid of polyphenols in chocolate in just a second. So participants consume their assigned treatment once daily for 30 days. So, once again, they all had a chocolate drink, but the level of polyphenols was varied. Researchers didn't know what was in each one. The participants didn't know what was each one, and they all tasted the same. Participants were asked to record their level of calmness on both day one and at day 30. After 30 days, the group that drank the 500 milligram mix reported significantly increased feelings of calmness and contentedness compared to the other two groups. So there was a sweet spot of 500 milligrams of polyphenols that imparted the feeling of calmness. Again, nobody knew which one they were getting. And this again confirms, particularly ladies, that feeling that eating chocolate improves your mood. So, dilate your blood vessels, improves your mood. Fantastic. There's also now been very good studies published by of all people, the Mars Corporation, looking at benefits to brain health and memory. And once again, in placebo-controlled trials, people who got the flavonols and polyphenols in chocolate had improved memory and better BDNF levels, which actually stimulate neuron growth. And in fact, they make a supplement based on these findings. So, chocolate is so good for so many things, including heart health, brain health, and emotional health. So, why not? Okay, so let's go get some chocolate, but not so fast. The first thing you want to look for is the level of the polyphenols. Now, the best judge, polyphenols in general, are bitter. And as you know, one of my favorite sayings is, more bitter, more better. And so, the bitterness in chocolate is a fairly decent way of deciding what the polyphenol content is in the chocolate. At least 72% cacao is where to start. Now, I actually urge you to look for 85%, 90% as a really good starting point. So, if you're eating a small amount of dark chocolate every night, there may be some sugar, but that chocolate, the cacao, is going to outweigh any of the sugar benefits, any of the sugar harm, that is. But use it in moderation. Now, there's numerous bars, more and more, that are coming out with sweeteners such as Stevia, such as Allelos. And believe it or not, there's a Stevia sweetened chocolate at Costco that are called Bake Believe. And Lily's, a company from Santa Barbara, where I live, makes multiple different bars of Stevia sweetened chocolate that I personally love, that I have in my refrigerator right now. There's a very interesting new company called Gatsby's that I have no relationship with that is using Allelos as their sweetener for chocolate. And as you know, Allelos may be the best sweetener on the market right now. It's a true sugar that actually feeds gut bacteria. So it's a win-win. So look for these alternatives. And again, more bitter, more better is the rule. Also, check out my sorghum crisp chocolate bars. They're loaded with prebiotics. They taste great, and they're a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth without wrecking your health. Now, many people seek out chocolate, but they look for hot chocolate or cocoa powder without carefully reading the label. If you see the word dutched chocolate or alkali chocolate, that's code word that all the polyphenols have been bonded and inaccessible to you. The reason it's called dutching is that the dutch were the first people to make this really, really bitter flavor in chocolate disappear by dutching it, by adding alkali to the chocolate. That got rid of the bitterness, and everybody thought that was the greatest thing that ever happened, except that getting rid of that bitterness bound all the polyphenols. So just be careful. If you see dutched chocolate or alkaline chocolate, put it down. Make sure to read the label. Now, one of the better things to do with dark chocolate is to consume it with olive oil. Yeah, I know, sounds crazy, but a study performed at the University of Pisa in Italy found that eating both olive oil and chocolate together actually helped improve people's cardiovascular health markers. This combo was actually far more effective than any other polyphenol stacks. So the polyphenols in olive oil and the polyphenols in dark chocolate was the one to punch that gave the best cardiovascular benefit. I know it sounds weird, but here's how I like to do it. So I like to make a mocha milkshake using unsweetened coconut milk, coffee, olive oil, vanilla extract, and heart defense. My chocolate drink powder. It's absolutely delicious and just a perfect way of stacking your polyphenols into this unbelievable heart-healthy, brain-healthy, mood-improving drink that you can have every day. Make sure to check out the next one here. It's wildly different from high fat to low fat, but what all of these programs have is they have very limited animal protein in their diet.