12 Desserts That Make It Easy to Reap the Benefits of Dark Chocolate

If food is medicine, dark chocolate is sure to be one of the most popular elixirs. Bloomberg notes that Americans are expected to spend $23 billion on chocolate in 2023. While Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and Halloween are perhaps the best-known days to enjoy a chocolaty treat, it’s clear that Americans eat plenty of chocolate on the days in between.

It’s welcome news that this food we all love to eat has some health benefits. While sugar-laden candy bars are best reserved for the occasional treat, dark chocolate has a special place in the hearts of cardiologists (pun intended!) and registered dietitians alike. That’s because, as Cleveland Clinic points out, dark chocolate (defined as chocolate with 50 percent cacao or more) is a rich source of heart-healthy flavanols.

Plus, eating a small amount of dark chocolate may even be good for your mood, suggests a study published in Depression and Anxiety in July 2019. Researchers examined data on more than 13,000 U.S. adults and found that those who said they ate dark chocolate were 70 percent less likely to report clinically relevant depressive symptoms than those who reported not eating chocolate.

The higher the percentage of cacao, the more flavanols and health benefits you can expect to get, notes the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The usual recommendation is to choose a dark chocolate that is 70 percent cacao or higher. You will, however, also find that the bitterness of a chocolate increases along with the cacao percentage. It can help to gradually increase your tolerance for darker and darker chocolate until you find a “sweet spot” that maximizes the flavanols you get while still tasting good.