#10 Eat Dark Chocolate


Now this won't come as a surprise to anyone out there, but yes, it's true, dark chocolate has a natural pain relieving effect.

Apart from the obvious feelgood effect of sugar which often comes as part of the package when you eat dark chocolate, it's the phenylethylamine (PEA) in the cocoa beans that is the reason for this. Also known as the bliss chemical, PEA is otherwise released by the brain when people fall in love and stimulates release of those feel-good endorphins. Dark chocolate also contains magnesium which can ease aches and pains because it helps muscles to relax.

Apparently cocoa also has good preventive effect on migraines by stimulating anti-inflammatory proteins in the brain, eases emotional stress, and reduces risk of heart disease.

But of course this effect won't come by eating the low grade chocolate you get at your regular convenience store, which has hardly seen a cocoa bean on it's way to the candy shelf. You need the kind that has 70% + cocoa solids in order to get the beneficial effects.
My favourite kind Divine is organic and fairly traded, and I buy it at the local health food store.

Enjoy in small amounts of course :)

3 comments:

  1. For the past year I have been eating everyday, Lindor: extra dark chocolate truffle made by Lindt. It contains 60% chocolate shell. Then 7 days ago I stopped eating it. Then 2 days ago I started feeling bone pain down my leg. I then remembered that I have had this pain before and so today I googled if dark chocolate provided relief for pain and I found this site. Tonight I have started eating the chocolate again. (What an excuse to eat such a divine treat!) Hopefully I will come back soon to report if my pain went away again.

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  2. The pain from my swollen gums has dissappeared after consuming some dark chocolate the day before. That made me googgled to find its relation tt leads me to this site.

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