Friday Favorites...

Dark chocolate. It's my favorite thing this week! If you want something sweet while celebrating Valentines' Day, buy yourself a little dark chocolate. As you may have heard, dark chocolate does have health benefits, if eaten in moderation and if you choose dark chocolate that isn't loaded with additives and preservatives. The health benefits in chocolate mainly come from the antioxidants in cocoa. Therefore, the higher the amount of cocoa in the dark chocolate, the more healthly it is! I'm currently enjoying 70% dark chocolate, and am working on training my taste buds to like the higher amounts of cocoa.

Dark chocolate has been shown to aid in improving your cardiovascular system and stabilizing blood pressure. It's also recently been shown to ease anxiety and lower stress levels. So choose some dark chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth! It's much more healthy than milk chocolate, which adds so much milk and sugar to the cocoa that it basically cancels out all of the health benefits!

It only been in the past few years that I've begun to love dark chocolate. I used to think it was bitter and disgusting! But as I've been cutting most sugar out of my diet, I've begun to find "natural" sugar and items that have lower levels of sugar to be quite sweet. So, give it a try! You just might like it.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Bekah

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...." 1 John 3:1

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." 1 John 4:7