Indulge in a tasty little treat — or two

I HAVE a seriously sweet tooth and the only way I can avoid unrestrained eating is to make sure there are no treats — and certainly no milk chocolate — in the house.

But I often allow myself the late-afternoon (or post-dinner-time) luxury of a couple of small squares of dark chocolate.

It helps satisfy my cravings for something sweet, while at the same time offering potential health benefits, such as lowering my blood pressure, improving blood flow, insulin and cholesterol levels and even boosting my brain. The health benefits of dark chocolate come from compounds called flavanols, which are largely taken out of white chocolate and milk chocolate in the manufacturing process to make them less bitter. How can dark chocolate be good for us? It’s partly because eating it leads to the production of nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to expand and consequently improve blood flow. But chocolate expert Professor Aedin Cassidy, of Queen’s University Belfast, believes that the flavanols in dark chocolate can also ‘feed’ the ‘good’ bacteria that live in our gut. ‘When you eat dark chocolate, the flavanols reach all the way to the large intestine before being metabolised,’ she says.

‘There, gut bacteria munch them up and convert them into special compounds which then travel to the heart and brain and boost cerebral blood flow, which aids learning and memory.’

She recommends picking a dark chocolate with around 50 per cent cocoa solids.

This is a compromise between very high cocoa solids (which can be very bitter) and low cocoa solids (which might be calorific and too tempting to indulge in).