Is Chocolate Good for Your Heart?

Chocolate lovers rejoice! Today may just be your lucky day.

This is the day that you are about to see in print something that should make you smile from ear to ear. So, is dark chocolate good for your heart?

In small amounts, drinking red wine, adding olive oil to your diet, and eating the healthiest types of chocolate are contributors to lowering cardiovascular disease or heart disease risk. It can also be considered heart healthy additions to your wellness regimen.

Let that sink in.

We love these findings, too, because all these things have found their way into Vosges’ recipes over the past two decades and of course chocolate is, pardon the pun, at the heart of everything we do.

What does science have to say about this?

Firstly, that chocolate is chock full of healthy nutrients, things like flavonoids and polyphenols that have the ability to reduce inflammation and increase good cholesterol.

The benefits of cocoa flavanols

Many studies support the benefits of cocoa flavanols. The link between blood pressure and high cocoa intake was described in a study of the Kuna Indians, an isolated tribe who live on the Caribbean Coast of Panama. 

Known for their low hypertension or lower blood pressure, when they moved to and assimilated into urban areas, their blood pressure went up. While they continued their traditional chocolate intake, rich in flavanols, their rates of death from heart disease or cardiovascular disease like coronary heart disease, were significantly lower than their counterparts living in urban centers. 

Full of detoxifying nutrients and botanical extracts

Chocolate consumption also offers an infusion of detoxifying nutrients and botanical extracts such as sulfur, magnesium and phenylethylamine. It’s a great source of monounsaturated fat, cholesterol-free saturated fat, vitamins, minerals, fiber, natural carbohydrates and protein. 

Rich in iron

Cacao is also rich in plant-based iron and has nearly 40 times more antioxidant varieties than blueberries.  It offers more Magnesium than any other food, a nutrient that’s important for many processes in the body, including regulating blood sugar levels, and blood pressure. 

The benefits of Theobromine

The Theobromine in chocolate also offers its own disease-fighting powers and is a healthful addition to one’s diet. It is a chemical that has a similar structure to caffeine, but the difference is that instead of being a nervous system stimulant like coffee, theobromine dilates the cardiovascular system which results in opening up the blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more freely which lowers the risk of heart attack. Cacao is quite literally heart opening.

When it comes to the kind of chocolate that has the healthiest benefits, the darker the better. While there is room in our diets for white and milk chocolate, in this context dark is the clear winner.

Here are some of our favorite luxury chocolates for those looking to eating chocolate in the name of heart health:

Pure Plant 6 Bar Library

A pioneering collaboration between Dr. William Li and Katrina, these Pure Plant chocolate bars are revolutionary in their use of ingredients to focus on wellness. Each of the Pure Plant bars helps to activate your body’s defenses in powerful ways. 

They work to address the needs of the body to heal, regenerate and be nourished. They’re a whole new way to consume chocolate and experience cacao. By incorporating the whole cacao in this innovative way Pure Plant takes one of the most nutrient-rich ingredients in nature and charts a new path for how we use it and ultimately, how you taste it. 

Each Pure Plant bar allows you to experience cacao as close to how nature intended it to be discovered: simply. The chocolate bar has no refined sugars, is high in Theobromine and rich in Flavanols, all in the name of promoting your heart health.

Vegan Truffle Collection

Wondering what vegan chocolate is? We blended a treasured early harvest olive oil with our proprietary 72% dark chocolate and added luscious pockets of fruit and nuts. Having minimal amounts of sugars present in the chocolate and the fruits to sweeten them, these Vegan truffles are low in sweetness and sumptuously rich without any dairy. 

The collection offers three parfums: Forest Raspberry Rose, I.G.P. Piemonte Hazelnut and Sicilian Blood Orange. Dark chocolate and Olive Oil? Just pour yourself a nice glass of red wine and toast to the joys of doing well for your heart and the decadence of these luscious truffles.

Vosges Cacao Elixirs

At the heart of our super cacao elixirs is the mighty cacao bean. Designed as an alternative to your daily coffee ritual, they are a portal to deliver the cacao beans’ health benefits to your heart in its purest form. The colorful elixirs leverage the healthy fats from cocoa butter, unrefined coconut nectar and various adaptogens, spices and flowers. 

They feature naturally occurring theobromine, which will open your heart (literally!) instead of stimulating your heart and causing a caffeine crash. Offered in a variety of parfums: Reishi Mushroom and Walnut, Ceremonial Cacao, Ceremonial Matcha or Golden Milk, these beautiful drinks are another way to consume chocolate when your wellness is a priority.

So, take heart (sorry for a second pun,) not everything the doctor ordered must be bad news and no fun. In this instance living a little, is going to assist you in your quest to living a little longer. 

Those small bites of cacao blended with spices, nuts, olive oil, and fruits, are indulgences heartily full of heart healthy nutrients, beneficial to your mind, spirit, AND body. Whether you want to treat someone special for a birthday, give the gift of Father’s Day chocolate, or give a gift to show appreciation, the benefits of our chocolate make a wonderful gift.