11 Reasons Why Chocolate Is Good for You

A new study suggests that eating chocolate may help you stay slim. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that people who eat chocolate frequently have a lower body mass index than others. Other evidence indicates that chocolate may also prevent strokes, heart attacks and diabetes. So here are 11 reasons to indulge in a few s'mores this summer (no word yet on the health benefits of marshmallows)…

Chocolate lowers the risk of stroke

A Swedish study found that eating more than 45 grams of chocolate a week, or about two bars, led to a 20% lower risk of stroke in women. Chocolate contains flavonoids, whose antioxidant properties help fight strokes, study author Susanna Larsson told HealthDay.

Chocolate reduces the risk of heart attack

Other studies show that eating chocolate prevents the formation of blood clots, which reduces the risk of heart attack. Studies indicate that blood platelets clump together more slowly in chocolate eaters.

Chocolate helps with maths

British psychologists found that flavanols (a class of flavonoids found in chocolate) helped people with mental arithmetic. Study subjects found it easier to count backwards from a randomly generated number between 800 and 999 after drinking a cup of hot chocolate than they did without cocoa. "The results suggest that students who gorge on chocolate while revising for an exam might get a real benefit from it," the British Telegraph reported.

Chocolate may prevent cancer

Cocoa contains a compound called pentameric procyanidin, or pentamer, that disrupts cancer cells' ability to spread. When researchers at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center treated cancer cells with the pentamer in 2005, the proteins needed for cancer growth were suppressed and the cells stopped dividing.

Chocolate reduces the risk of diabetes

Italians know a thing or two about eating well. And a small study from the University of L'Aquila in Italy found that eating chocolate increases insulin sensitivity, which reduces the risk of diabetes.

Chocolate is good for your skin

"Some people say I eat too many chocolate bars…" Remember that 1990s anti-acne infomercial? No? Well, never mind. Not only does it not cause breakouts, it's good for the skin! (Well, dark chocolate at least.) According to German scientists, the flavonoids in dark chocolate protect women's skin from the sun's UV rays. But that doesn't mean you can ignore sunscreen.

Chocolate can control coughing

The most delicious way to knock out your cough, apparently, is chocolate. One of the sweet's chemical components, theobromine, seems to reduce activity of the vagus nerve, the part of the brain responsible for coughing fits. Scientists are even working on a cough medicine that uses theobromine in place of codeine – a narcotic common in cough medicines.

Chocolate improves blood flow

In 2008, Harvard scientists made test subjects undergo "two weeks of increased chocolate consumption". Two weeks later, they found accelerated blood flow in their subjects' middle cerebral arteries. In other words, more chocolate means more blood in your brain.

Chocolate boosts your brain

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that dark chocolate protected your brain cells and accordingly protected it from the damage caused by strokes. They found that epicatechin, a compound found in chocolate, significantly reduced brain damage in mice that had suffered a stroke. Scientists at the Salk Institute in California also found that epicatechin improved the memory of mice.

Chocolate makes you live longer

Jeanne Louise Calment lived to the age of 122 – the oldest person of all time. She ate two and a half pounds of dark chocolate a week. Harvard researchers found that eating chocolate lengthened your life expectancy by two years.

But don't start betting on chocolate! Most of the chocolate you buy at the grocery store is highly processed, which means many of the healthy chemicals have been lost. And some of the research supporting chocolate's healthy characteristics was funded by chocolate makers.