Chocolate has long been a favorite confection for people of all ages and now this tasty treat is receiving recognition for being good for your heart health as well. Studies have found that dark chocolate contains antioxidants, which help promote a healthy heart by improving the blood flow. This lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

What is an Antioxidant?

Antioxidants remove free radicals from the blood stream. Free radicals are a natural product of blood cells. The world is also filled with environmental toxins that also contribute to their production. There has been research that has discovered that eating dark chocolate lowers the risk of heart attacks and high blood pressure by removing the free radicals and ensuring that the blood can flow more freely through the veins. It is important to note that it is only the dark type of chocolate that has these benefits. Tests run on white and milk chocolate did not show these positive benefits.

What Research Was Done on Chocolate?

A Swiss team of researchers ran tests on 20 volunteers who were smokers. They were given 40 grams of chocolate and were not allowed to eat any other food that was rich in antioxidants like certain vegetables. After 2 hours, there was a marked improvement noted in the volunteers who ate dark chocolate that was made up of 74% cocoa. The improvement noted was in the improved flow of blood through the veins. The research also showed that the chocolate significantly reduced the risk of blockages by half.

How Much Chocolate Should I Eat?

You should try to include a portion of dark chocolate everyday, but before you run out to the grocery store to fill the larder with dark chocolate treats, remember that it also contains a lot of sugar and fat, right along with those antioxidants. Before you add it to your regular diet, decide how much you can safely eat without expanding your waistline. Naturally the more active you are, the more you will burn calories.

This would be true of people who exercise regularly or have jobs that require a lot of physical activity. If you have a sedentary job where you sit at a desk all day, or do not follow a regular exercise plan, than you should lower the portion of chocolate that you eat. If you don’t follow an exercise plan, then consider starting one. Exercising three times a week for 30 minutes has also been shown to strengthen the heart. While you are improving your health with chocolate, you can get even greater benefits by including exercise to your regimen.

These new health benefits of dark chocolate will let you please both your heart and your palate.

Gregg Hall
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/can-you-beleive-that-chocolate-could-actually-be-good-for-your-heart-51412.html

A Healthy Menu for your Birthday Party

Your Birthday Party does not necessarily mean that you need to binge on junk food on that day. You and your guests can have healthy and tasty food and enjoy it, as everything depends on the preparation. Normally the food served at birthday parties are candy, chips and dips, soda and cake. You can go for an innovative menu that will be kind to your friends, family and everyone you care about

Treat Yourself Better on Special Occasions
We need to use the knowledge that we learn from health articles and apply them to our lives, so that we can make life-style changes. The choice is ours, whether we would like to continue with junk food or go for a
diet that is kind to our bodies, particularly on special occasions. In fact, we need to be kinder to ourselves on special occasions.Firstly, we need to choose foods that have some nutritional value - if it has none at all, we are doing a disservice to ourselves. Making a change on special occasions by providing a menu that is not only healthy and nutritious, but also tasty and scrumptuous, will be an eye-opener to all friends and children alike.

Healthy Cooking Ideas
It is not difficult to come up with a healthy menu. Why go for onion dips that are fattening - why not go in for low fat yogurt instead, and have fresh strawberries, bananas and apples as a fruit for the dip. Apart from being healthy, it is also delicious. The usual hamburgers, pizzas and hot dogs that are thrown in at birthday parties can be substituted with tasty turkey sandwiches and an unusual salad. This would cut out the junk food.

Now, we come to the dessert, which needs to be carefully thought out, as children love desserts and cake. Instead of piling up the fat on the cake with creamy icing, you would do well to go for a low fat dessert. You could either make or get a low fat cake, and use yogurt instead of butter, margarine and other fatty ingredients. The cake will be equally tasty and nutritious. It could be decorated with chocolate strawberries, which will be popular with kids and adults alike. Jello can be made in different shapes which again is popular with kids. There are so many juices in all flavors to choose from, which can be frozen. This is another popular item with kids.The list is endless - all it requires is a little imagination and time to create a delicious spread. It is true that the easier way is to order pizzas and cake, but with that extra effort and care, you can turn that birthday party around to make it a wonderful spread that is healthy, enjoyable and delicious.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/healthy-cooking-have-a-happier-birthday-with-these-ideas-708750.html

I just had a friend present me with the opportunity to sell this chocolate. . .any of you heard of this or done this? I’m pretty skeptical at this point. Thoughts?

I commend you for being proactive and attempting to diversify (everyone should be). I don’t know much about Xocai, but if you are looking for an alternative stream of income outside of your current job responsibilities, which obviously you are if you are considering an MLM such as Xocai, I would caution you about investing your time and money into something with a single (or very few) products.

Especially in the economic situation we find ourselves in, as wages and employment drop, so does passive income. When it comes down to someone making a choice between consumables (things you NEED) vs. high end healthy chocolate, the chocolate (or juice, or vitamin, or video phone service, etc) will lose every time.

Better to invest time and money into something that doesn’t have an 86% attrition (failure) rate.

Keep looking, there are better opportunities out there.