Skeebobert | 2
Robert Skeebobert
Mrs. Ruggiero
English Class
23 March 2019
Chocolate: Just What the Doctor Ordered
Chocolate may now be considered a health food. It has been proven to lower blood pressure and help the body function optimally in a few other ways too. Even though it is not considered a “health food,” there are other benefits to eating chocolate that can help a person stay healthy. The truth is, dark chocolate is actually good for us.
Chocolate was introduced to the western world many centuries ago by Milton Hershey (Gorham 76). Today, it is a part of holidays from Valentine’s Day traditions to the chocolate bunny kids get for Easter. It’s become a part of our culture. The craving for chocolate is hard to resist, and as we know it is full of sugar and butter and was thought to be very unhealthy, until now.
A researcher from the University of Scranton named Joe Vinson, Ph.D. found a high level of antioxidants in chocolate, which means it helps prevent cells from aging and helps them to repair themselves better too. Phillip Gorham states that “The concentration of antioxidants is higher in dark chocolate than it is in red wine, black or even green tea.” It’s even 20 times higher than in tomatoes (77).
In the 17th century, the Europeans believed that chocolate aided the liver and the digestive tracks a makes a person strong. It was used to treat anemia, tuberculosis, fever, and gout. Dark chocolate contains 23 grains of fat and 14 grams of saturated fat, but it still helps your heart. Some people say “Goodbye cough, hello big belly” (Good News Chocolate Lovers 38).
Dark chocolate provides vascular protection because of their antioxidant properties and increases nitric oxide. Large scale intakes of dark chocolate have proven to provide protective actions in people with diabetes and insulin resistant conditions (“Dark Chocolate may Provide Some Health Benefits” 134).
Overall, it seems that eating dark chocolate can be better for us then we ever knew. It helps the body in a variety of ways. It is anti-aging, assists our digestive tracts, and our circulation. Perhaps we should add more chocolate to our grocery lists, next to the vegetables.
Works Cited
“Dark Chocolate May Provide Some Health Benefits”. Hershey.
21 Feb 2017. Web. 3 Mar 2017.
Denoon, Peter. How Chocolate is Made. Chicago: MacMillan
Publishing Company, 2017. Print.
Good News Chocolate Lovers. London: Crown Publishers, 2005. Print.
Gorham, Phillip. “Dark Chocolate Changes Lives.” Healthy Living
Magazine. Jul 2016: 22-24. Print.
______
*Notes to you
· Notice that all of the lines after the first are indented. It’s opposite of how you would indent paragraphs.
· Also notice that it is in alphabetical order (not numbered) and the last names are what is used.
· If there is no author, the title is used in alphabetizing.
Please use https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
For up to date formatting. It teaches you how to cite the sources properly, since MLA (The Modern Language Association) is always changing. ;)