We keep being told contradictory things about foods, particularly controversial foods that we like such as wine and chocolate. One minute they help us fight a disease and the next there is another headline saying they are bad for us in new ways – in this case depression. So on balance is chocolate good or bad for you?
All the Yes points:
All the No points:
- caffiene and sugar in Chocolate
- It causes weight gain
- Financially, chocolate is expensive
- Chocolate, like most drugs, is addictive
- It causes tooth decay.
placebo effect and phenylthiamine
Yes because…
[[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3604275.stm]]
chocolate makes people happy, via the mood-altering chemicals in chocolate and also through all the goodness associated with it.
For generations people of all age groups all over the world; have had chocolate as a ‘treat’ or as something to ‘enjoy’ during festivities. Happy people are healthy people.
counter:over-indulgence of anything is bad for you. Fat is a necessary food component for good mental and physical health. It is one of the essentials of a balanced diet but we all know the adverse effects of having too much fat and their correlation with a range of diseases.
Sugar/carb(ohydrate)s are also essentials in a Balanced diet : Have too much and you’re headed for a lot of trouble.
People who eat chocolate as a luxury treat are happier(therefore healthier\0 than people who don’t have chocolate at all.
No because…
But are chocolate eaters happy?
[[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8644016.stm]] research suggests that those who eat regular amounts of chocolate are generally depressive/glum/sad.
i dont think that chocolate is for us!and i also dont think that that it makes us happy.because if we eat a chocolate it tastes very delicious but we are not satisfied we keep eating more and more and this causes certain diseases like diabeties occurs to small children ,they spoil there teeth ,worms in the intestines ,and i say that those who eat chocolates they are happy but only for time period because everyone will suffer after having the diseases and so much of fat is also not good health !!! as it increases our colestrol in body.
phytonutrients
Yes because…
Antioxidants in Chocolate(especially dark chocolate) may reverse the effects of aging and are good for you.
No because…
These nutrients are mostly burned off during the making/processing of chocolate.
Gives large amount of instant energy
Yes because…
If you are in need of some extra energy, a piece of chocolate would contain the sugar you need to give you the energy boost. People who work in highly pressured jobs often need this sort of energy boost from sugar in order to complete their day’s tasks as quickly as possible. It also is a quick snack that if people did not have they would not eat at all. This would make them slower and less productive at what they are doing. Therefore, on a productivity level, chocolate is good for you.
No because…
How is instant, short lasting energy good for us? This can cause a sugar crash. Repeated bouts of this sugar crash can cause diabetes.
It is true that sugar is absorbed into the body very quickly and releases a large amount of energy. However, this energy is very short lived. When the sugar levels start to plummet so will the individual’s productivity. They will slow down. It is for this reason that students taking exams are told to avoid sugar; it will cause them to have a sugar crash during the exam and this will hinder their performance.
caffiene and sugar in Chocolate
No because…
are notorious ingredients for a bad brew health-wise.
Caffeine is addictive, causes dehydration, over stimulation and is generally not thought of as good for people.
Sugar can cause diabetes; hypoglycemia.,hyperglycemia; it whacks out insulin levels and a sugar-high can be equivocally bad or alternatively worse than a caffeine high.
Yes because…
Caffeine in tea, chocolate and coffee has many positive properties. most weight-loss experts recommend having caffeine which stimulates both mental and physical activity; research reveals that senile people who have regular caffeine are sharper/more-alert/better-mentally than those who do not.
once someone has diabetes having sugary treats after insulin doses/injections is necessary.
It causes weight gain
No because…
There is no doubt about it that we, on the whole, enjoy eating chocolate. But we can take this enjoyment too far. If we like it, we do it. Therefore we end up gorging ourselves on chocolate. The reality is that in today’s society we do not make time for exercise to work those extra calories off. The end result is then weight gain. Our stomachs enlarge and then we are able to fill it with more chocolate. This leads to more weight gain. With this cycle of events it is not hard to see why we are such an overweight nation. The health issues lie in the weight gain. Excess weight can cause weakening of the joints, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This shows us that in our current society; chocolate is not good for you.
Yes because…
This cannot be cited as a reason why chocolate itself is not good for you. Excessive chocolate eating is not good for you, over that there is no doubt and no debate. However, the question is, can chocolate be good for you. Anything in excess is not good for you, even fruit and vegetables. It is for this reason that we must exclude excessive behaviours out of the debate. We can enjoy chocolate as part of a healthy lifestyle so long as moderation is achieved.
Financially, chocolate is expensive
No because…
Given that chocolate is a popular product; companies can get away with charging excessive prices for meagre amount of chocolate. This then is taxed heavily by the Government due to the cost of the NHS of treating people who are overweight and suffering from the related symptoms of being overweight. The end result is an expensive product. Given that the nutrients that chocolate contains can be found in cheaper foods such as milk and tea; chocolate is not good for our bank accounts.
Yes because…
Once again this argument is relying on people being intemperate and uncouth about their chocolate eating! The cost of chocolate would only be of concern to most people if they were gorging on the largest, most expensive bars of chocolate. However most people would budget chocolate into their expendable income and leave chocolate off of their shopping list should they become short of cash. A small chocolate treat could do wonders for you mood and it need not be expensive [[http://www.milkybar.co.uk/products/singlepacks.aspx]].
Chocolate, like most drugs, is addictive
No because…
When eating chocolate we do feel good about ourselves. This is because it causes endorphins, a happy hormone, to be released around our body. These hormones are then picked up by receptors in our brain and this results in us being happy. However, this is short lived. To get that happy mood we need to eat more chocolate. But eventually the receptors in our brain become desensitised to the effects of chocolate and so we would need to at more chocolate in order to feel the same happy effect. The results can be catastrophic consequences including morbid obesity.
Yes because…
It causes tooth decay.
No because…
We all love the taste of chocolate (mostly sugar). We all love the sensation of the chocolate in our mouth, the way it melts at body temperature. But these two factors about chocolate make our teeth quiver in their roots. Sugar is a well known cause of tooth decay. Bacteria thrive off of the sugar in the moistness of our mouths. They feed off of the sugar and, like humans after feeding, release a waste product. Bacteria release acidic chemicals as their waste product. This acid erodes the enamel on our teeth. The effects can be prevent or elevated by regular brushing of our teeth. However, the melting nature of chocolate makes this difficult. The chocolate melts in our mouths and the sugar within the chocolate are released into difficult areas of the mouth and in between teeth. This makes the sugar and bacteria harder to wash away and therefore increases the risk of tooth decay.
I love you
Chocolate is good for you because it giveees you energie
We would love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Chocolate has Vitamins A,B,E and D in it
The easter bunny gives out chocolate eggs so if the easter
bunny eats chocolate then it must be good for you.
They also make movies about chocolate such as Charlie and
the chocolate factory so if chocolate was bad for you then they wouldn’t make
movies about it
Finally we enjoy chocolate and it make us happy and because it makes us happy it must mean it’s healthy.
Because 40-50% of our brain depends on happiness if we are not happy our health and aspects of our body can go down so by eating something that we enjoy we are helping our brain.