Dark Chocolate is a Super Food for Athletes too!

Although you may want to avoid candy when you are trying to get in shape, recent research suggests that you may want to keep eating dark chocolate. . . .

Dark chocolate’s benefits for cardiovascular health are now very well documented. One of the ways chocolate improves cardiovascular health is that the flavonoids in chocolate increase levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps blood vessels to expand and increase the flow of blood and oxygen.

By improving oxygen uptake, nitric oxide also improves exercise performance. So, in a small study, nine moderately-trained men tried doing a cycling test while eating 40g a day of either dark chocolate or white chocolate.

The men who ate the dark chocolate improved oxygen use and were able to cycle significantly further on a time trial than men who ate the placebo white chocolate

So, the evidence is growing that dark chocolate is a superfood for athletes and exercisers too.

J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2015;15;12:47

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