When you’re best avoiding chocolate, new study shows
Chocolate can offer health benefits when it is consumed in moderation. However, it can also have a dark side when consumed at certain times.
Americans consume billions of pounds of chocolate each year. It is by far one of the most popular foods in the world consumed dark or mixed with milk and other ingredients.
Chocolate, besides being a delicious treat, can offer health benefits as well when it is consumed in moderation. However, it can also have a possible dark side when consumed at the wrong time.
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When you’re best avoiding chocolate according to research
While it is well known that caffeine is a stimulant there is debate about the effect of another stimulant chocolate contains called theobromine. The former activates the central nervous system while the latter doesn’t. Instead theobromine stimulates, and regulates, cardiovascular activities while acting as a muscle relaxant.
For this reason, and the fact that chocolate also contains tryptophan, which stimulates serotonin and melatonin, some believe that the sweet delicacy that originated in the Americas can actually help people sleep. However, another substance present in chocolate has led researchers to the opposite conclusion and would support the belief that you should not have chocolate after dinner or before bedtime.
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Chocolate is better to have when you are in an activity phase
Researchers looking at using chocolate as part of a chronotherapeutic strategy, due to its high flavonoid content, found that it could be a good new tool. Chocolate “when taken in the morning, can have positive effects on our mental and cognitive well-being, our cardiovascular system, and our metabolism,” the study concluded.
Taken at that time and during the activity hours of the day, “modest amounts, preferably dark chocolate,” can also help in resynchronizing our internal biological clocks that are frequently knocked out of whack by modern life through “shift work, jet lag, and social jet lag.”
However, when food like chocolate is consumed during the rest phase it can produce an inhibitory effect. So, even though more research is needed, it may be recommendable to avoid that ounce of chocolate when you are powering down for the day.