For our last psychology paper, our class was assigned to choose a super food and find supportive evidence if there were the health benefits that are associated with that food. I chose to research and write about the dark chocolate and its effect on individuals with hypertension. As someone who is a fond lover of chocolate herself, I decided to see if the claims about whether this food can reduce high blood pressure were true. After some research, studies have shown that the consumption of dark chocolate can lower a persons blood pressure with the help of polyphenols. Polyphenols are a micronutrient that carry antioxidant properties and increase a particular nitric acid in our bodies. That increase in acid promotes the widening of our blood vessels which causes a lower systolic an diastolic blood pressure reading.  There was no information that I found that said exactly how much dark chocolate was needed in order to reduce blood pressure. Yet, one experiment showed that as little as 100g of dark chocolate was able to lower blood pressure readings.

When I continued reading about the experiments that were conducted, it elaborated more about the positive relationship between dark chocolate and hypertension. However, there were some experiments where those who participated in the experiments found that eating dark chocolate had some adverse effects. Due to the caffeine content within dark chocolate, individuals reported that after daily consumption of this food, they had difficulty sleeping. Also, some reported that merely eating dark chocolate everyday gave them feelings of nausea. Thus, due to these consequences dark chocolate does not seem like a feasible form of treatment to reduce blood pressure. Growing up, I have always heard how dark chocolate could potentially be beneficial to ones health however, I did not know that there were scientific studies that actually supported the claims. Upon finding these answers about dark chocolate, I was fascinated. Even though it may not be a great form of treatment for individuals with hypertension, it is still satisfying to know that when I do eat dark chocolate there are some benefits.

Here are some articles that I read that helped me write my paper: polyphenols and dark chocolate