Ask most women and they'll tell you that a good dose of chocolate really takes the edge off. It’s not a joke. Science confirms that eating dark chocolate helps relieve emotional stress and also lowers blood pressure.
A study published in the Journal of Proteome Research found that consuming 40 grams (about 1.4 ounces) of dark chocolate daily for a period of two weeks reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol and catecholamines, the fight-or-flight hormones.
The authors also concluded that their study “provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of ... healthy human subjects.”
Other studies had already suggested that chocolate relieved stress but this study provided evidence of the biochemical mechanism at work in relieving stress.
