I Love Chocolate and Chocolate Loves Me

I am not a total sweet tooth kind of gal. Don't get me wrong I like my sweets and dessert and I occasionally indulge in our accounting department bowls of candy; however, my real love is chocolate ... good, dark chocolate. Just writing that is making me salivate.

let me count the ways I love chocolate:

1. Chocolate decreases stroke risk - eating only 2 bars of chocolate a week translates into 20% decrease in strokes among women. If 2 bars equal 20%, I am thinking a bar a day plus one extra on Sunday is 8 bars = 80% stroke free. If you are one of the 80% who has a stroke because you only ate 2 bars a week, epicatechin, a compound found in chocolate, significantly reduces the brain damage from a stroke.

2. Chocolate reduces the likelihood of heart attack - Eating chocolate prevents blood clots. So forget the fact that I will be 500 pounds from eating 8 bars of chocolate a week and if I am reading the studies correctly, eating copious amounts chocolate will counter some obesity related disease such as a heart attack.

3. Chocolate protects against blood inflammation - Eating 6.7 grams dark chocolate per day keeps blood inflammation-inducing proteins away. OK I have no idea what that mean, I just know I can eat a chocolate bar every day.

4. Chocolate helps with math - Flavanols help people with their mental math. It also helps you count backwards. This is very exciting because it is a twofer ... notice my math skills in #1 and when a policeman asks me to count backwards, I will ace the test

5. Chocolate may prevent cancer - Cocoa contains a compound called pentameric procyanidin, or pentamer, which disrupts cancer cell's ability to spread. So chocolate will suppress cancer growth and stop cells from dividing. Sweet - I am going to ask my doctor to write me a prescription for a chocolate bar to be taken once a day.

6. Chocolate reduces the risk of diabetes - Well well University of L'Aquila, in Italy, found that eating chocolate increases insulin sensitivity, which reduces the risk of diabetes. I knew I loved Italians.

7. Chocolate can control coughs - Who knew? Theobromine reduces the activity of the vagus nerve. I am all over drinking/eating my chocolate via cough syrup.

8. Chocolate improves blood flow - A night of chocolate face-stuffing sped up blood flow through the middle cerebral arteries. More chocolate = more blood to the brain.

9. Chocolate makes you live longer - Jeanne Louise calment lived to the age of 122 - the oldest anyone has ever lived. She ate two and a half pounds of dark chocolate per week. Harvard researchers say eating chocolate actually adds two years to your life expectancy. Ladie and gentlemen I rest my case.

The real question here is how do I get myself on these chocolate studies???