People are always looking for natural treatments that can take to fight their mental health problems like stress and anxiety. Medications should be never taken without consulting a doctor and need to be combined with therapy – while effective – is both expensive and time consuming.

You want something that can help treat your stress now, while also being safe and easy. One of the things you may want to try is something that most of the people enjoy doing : eating chocolate (of course in moderation).

Obviously chocolate alone isn’t all you need to do to magically cure your stress or anxiety. If that were the case, everyone with mental health problems would simply down pounds of chocolate and find themselves problem free.

But does chocolate REDUCE your stress and anxiety in any way? The answer is: yes, probably!

There are logical reasons to think that chocolate may very well have benefits for those that have stress and anxiety.

Please note that stress and anxiety are separate mental health issues and should not be assumed to be same. You can approach a mental health professional – a counselor to understand what is that you’re exactly dealing with.

Now, when we talk about chocolate, we’re talking about only dark chocolate. Milk Chocolate has almost no nutritional value, and white chocolate is barely a chocolate.The closer you get to pure dark chocolate the more likely the food has value. If the chocolate is sugar free, that’s even better.

Here are some benefits –

1. Possible Serotonin Production

One of the causes of stress and anxiety is low serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that influences mood, and low serotonin is both responsible for stress and anxiety. Dark Chocolate has large amounts of Tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that also works as a precursor to serotonin.

2. Mood Elevation

Another ingredient in chocolate is, Theobromine. Theobromine is the ingredient that is toxic to dogs, but studies have shown that it it seems to have a positive, mood elevating effect on those that ingest it.

3. Magnesium

Dark Chocolate contains good amounts of magnesium. One ounce of a 70% chocolate bar equates 65 mg of magnesium. People often take magnesium supplements, but getting your magnesium through food is considered a much healthier overall option.

So the next time someone is giving you a hard time about eating chocolate, tell them it’s for your health and you won’t be lying. 😉

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