Yes, you heard me right. If you thought Jonny Depp was good as Willy Wonka, prepare to worship Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara from the University of L’Aquila in Italy who are officially my new heroes.
They have unearthed scientific proof that chocolate is good for you. However, there is a small caveat before you head down to your local Happy Shopper and stuff your faces with seven Double Deckers. It’s only applicable to dark chocolate, BUT you can get away with eating a little bit of dark chocolate every day. Yippee.
Why? Well, Valentina and Michele have found that flavanols (a class of natural compounds in cocoa beans) can result in enhanced memory performance and improved visual processing, it is also found to have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and in elderly people, the effects of long term consumption of cocoa included improved focus, better working memory and verbal fluency.
The scientific bit… Raw cacao (or cocoa) has higher flavanol content than the roasted cocoa found in ordinary chocolate bars. Here comes the plug… By using raw cacao, Ombar Chocolate ensures the nutritional benefits have been preserved. The use of raw cacao in Ombar’s high percentage cacao bars – such as Ombar 90% – ensures you get all the advantages of cocoa!
To obtain the maximum benefit from cocoa flavanols, choose a chocolate bar with high raw cacao content such as Ombar 90%, available from Ocado, Planet Organic, Whole Foods and independent health food stores, or online at www.ombar.co.uk RRP £1.99.
If you’re telling me I can eat chocolate every day, I’ll be straight down to my local health food shop and stocking right up on Ombar. The only problem is, which flavour to have….
