Why you should eat chocolate

            
             Purpose: To persuade my audience that chocolate is good for you.
             Loaded with sugar, packed with butter, chocolate is unhealthy, fattening, sinful.or so we thought.
             A. New research released in a recent chocolate study reveals that this dessert may have some health properties to rival green tea and beta-carotene.
             B. In short, chocolate could well be good for you.
             I. Chocolate is good for your heart.
             A. The concept that flavanol-rich cocoa inhabits platelet activation and delays blood clotting in healthy-nonsmoking adults.
             1. There was a study done where subjects were fed a flavanol-rich cocoa beverage, a caffeine and succrose-containing control beverage, or just plain water.
             2. The results After blood samples were drawn 2 and 6 hours after beverage consumption, it was found that in the cocoa group, platelet activation was decreased and clotting time of blood was increased.
             B. According to Andrew Waterhouse, from the University of California, chocolate actually carries high levels of chemicals known as *Phenolics, some of which may help lower the risk of heart disease. .
             C. Did you ever notice that dark chocolate is a little bitter?.
             1. This chocolate is actually better for you than Milk Chocolate because it has less cocoa and milk added to it.
             2. The bitter taste that this chocolate has is an indication of the Phenolics within.
             D. Dutch researchers indicate that dark varieties of chocolate contain 4 times the amount of certain antidioxants than black tea, which is suspected of having a protective affect against heart disease and possibly even cancer due to its antidioxant properties.
             1. According to his recently published research, Joe Vinson, a researcher at the University of Scranton, says that the concentration of polyphenols in milk chocolate is higher than in red wines, or black teas and an astonishing 20 times higher than in Tomatoes.
             II. Chocolate stimulates the brain and makes you feel good.
             A. The effects of chocolate on behavior and mood have something to do with the idea of craving chocolate.