Dark chocolate is good for you! Yipee!

It’s a powerful antioxidant and can help lower blood pressure. The higher the cocoa percentage the better- try for %70 plus. The dark stuff is also much stronger tasting, so theoretically you’ll eat less than if you were munching on lighter versions.

Also, flavonols (the antioxidants in dark chocolate) reduce roughness in the skin and protect against sun damage. In a study published in The Journal of Nutrition, women who drank cocoa fortified with 326 milligrams of flavonols had better skin texture and stronger resistance to UV rays than those who drank cocoa containing just a small amount of the antioxidant.

You need just a few ounces a day. The health benefits don’t apply to white or milk chocolate so step away from the Mars bar! Milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate, and therefore cancel out the potential health benefits that can be gained from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate.

Sadly, the key word here is moderate.  Dark chocolate is still filled with added sugar, and is loaded with calories. A 100g Lindt dark chocolate bunny contains 540 calories.  If you ate 100g apple you’d only take in 52 calories.

But a case can be argued for the Lindt bunny over the apple…  Lindt bunnies are helping a charitable cause this Easter! And eating an apple probably won’t make you as happy as this lady.

So enjoy the bunny- but maybe not the whole thing, or you’ll have to do the below to burn him off!

• Fast Dancing (540 calories an hour)
• Running at 6.5 mph (618 calories an hour)
• Cross-country skiing (540 calories an hour)
• Stairclimbing (on stairs or machine) (540 calories an hour)
• Swimming, slow crawl (510 calories an hour)