Take Your Chocolate Medicine

Romans 5:9
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Chocolate has long been thought of as a junk food. However, research on several fronts reveals that chocolate should probably be reclassified as a health food.

Research shows that the beans from which chocolate is made contain large amounts of antioxidants called flavonoids. Found in tea and other foods, these substances have been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. These flavonoids are present in high enough quantity in the chocolate you buy at the store to produce measurable results in scientific studies. A single gram of chocolate milk has 10 milligrams of antioxidants. If you like dark chocolate, you will more than double your dosage of antioxidants.

While some 4,000 natural flavonoids have been identified, the types found in chocolate are among the most powerful known. They are even more effective than the antioxidants found in vitamin C! Other flavonoids in chocolate have been found to relax the inside of blood vessels that lowers high blood pressure. Chocolate flavonoids have also been found to work as a mild aspirin would to help thin blood. They also help keep the platelets from breaking, which happens when they get too sticky. If all these benefits aren’t enough, chocolate has also been found to raise good cholesterol.

Chocolate may help you have a healthy cardiovascular system in this life. But when this life is done, only the blood of Jesus Christ will give you eternal life.

Prayer:
Lord, I thank You that You shed Your blood for me. Amen.

Notes:
Science News, 3/18/00, pp. 188-189, “Chocolate Hearts: Yummy and Good Medicine?” Photo: Variety of chocolates. Courtesy of ChocolateA. (CC BY-SA 3.0)