I really thought I was doing something revolutionary last July in Tuscany when I decided to skip the sugary gelato and opted for a very expensive bar of ninety percent dark chocolate instead but I quickly realized that was a massive tactical error because within five minutes I was basically vibrating with internal heat while trying to wipe dark brown stains off my favorite white linen trousers.
Bittersweet Truth About This Summer Sweet
Eating dark chocolate when the sun is trying to melt the pavement is a total double edged sword. It has these incredible biological perks that seem perfect for the heatwave life but then the actual chemical makeup of the bean goes and sabotages your cooling system. I know, right? One minute you are a health goddess and the next you are a sweaty mess with a migraine.
Benefits of Dark Chocolate
There is some genuine magic in those cocoa solids if you time it right because dark chocolate is packed with flavanols that actually work like an internal sunblock by increasing your minimal erythema dose which is just the scientific way of saying you can stay in the sun a little longer before turning into a literal lobster. It improves the blood flow to your skin and keeps you hydrated at a cellular level. Anyway, when you are sweating out every mineral in your body while walking through a humid city you actually need the magnesium and potassium found in high quality cacao to keep your electrolytes from tanking. It also triggers your body to produce nitric oxide which relaxes your blood vessels and helps your system move warm blood to the surface of your skin to let the heat escape. Plus we all get that summer crankiness when the humidity hits eighty percent and the serotonin boost from a small square can be the only thing keeping us from snapping at the waiter.
When & Why to Avoid Dark Chocolates
The problem is that dark chocolate is incredibly calorie dense and your body has to work overtime to break down those complex fats and solids which creates something called thermogenesis. This is basically your internal engine revving up and generating heat just to digest the snack you just ate. So if you are sitting in a room without air conditioning and you eat a whole bar you are essentially turning on a space heater inside your stomach. The melting point of cocoa butter is right around ninety three to one hundred and one degrees Fahrenheit which is why it feels so cool and silky on your tongue because it is literally stealing the heat from your mouth to change its state from a solid to a liquid.
Who Should Not Eat
Do not touch the stuff if you are already feeling parched and dehydrated because chocolate contains theobromine and a bit of caffeine which act as mild diuretics and will make you lose even more water. It is a total recipe for a disaster if you are out hiking or spending a day at the beach. You also need to skip it before bed on those sweltering nights where the air feels like soup. Your body needs to drop its core temperature by a couple of degrees to actually fall asleep and the thermogenic heat from digesting chocolate will keep you tossing and turning in your sweat. If you are prone to those nasty summer migraines you should be extra careful since the combination of intense heat and the tyramine in the chocolate can create a perfect storm for a headache that will ruin your entire weekend. Also if you are already struggling with acid reflux from too many spicy summer barbecues and cold sodas just know that dark chocolate relaxes the valve in your esophagus and makes that burning sensation ten times worse in the heat.
What Percentage of Dark Chocolate is Good For Health
Stick to the seventy percent rule because anything lower than that is just a sugar bomb that will make you even thirstier and cause inflammation that feels terrible in the sun. Whatever you do please stop putting your chocolate in the fridge because it causes that weird white sugar bloom that ruins thetexture even though we all crave a cold snap. Keep it in a dark cupboard instead. If you really want to do it right you should pair your chocolate with water rich fruits like strawberries or slices of cold orange to balance out the drying effects of the cocoa. It makes the whole experience feel way more refreshing and keeps you from turning into a human radiator. So yeah, enjoy the bliss but maybe keep it to a single square until the sun goes down.