Chocolate is the favorite food of many people but it’s often viewed as an unhealthy indulgence. Despite this, more and more evidence is suggesting that chocolate provides a number of impressive health benefits. Is this too good to be true?

Surprisingly, there’s an overwhelming amount of research and opinion existing on chocolate and its potential to alter mood, cause intense cravings, and influence health. As such, there’s a lot of important information to discuss, but too much to include in one article, so this will be the first of three. This article will discuss the beneficial aspects of chocolate, the next one will consider if and how chocolate can detract from health, and the final article will include my opinion on whether chocolate is a so called superfood or just an indulgence as is commonly thought. In this last article, I’ll also share what my three favorite chocolates are as well as some important information regarding selection.

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Alcohol is a significant part of the modern lifestyle, and even though most of it’s health risks are well known, many people still drink alcohol in excessive amounts and on a regular basis.

As a byproduct of yeast fermentation, alcohol is classified as a mycotoxin which means that it’s a toxic substance produced by fungus. Other common sources of mycotoxins include mold spores, antibiotics, and hallucinogenic drugs. Many of us have experienced the toxicity of alcohol in the form of a hangover, and as such, the damaging effects of alcohol shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

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Do you know that dehydration can be promoting disease within your body at this very moment?

Most people realize that dehydration is a problem, but few understand that it can actually cause disease. In his book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, Fereydoon Batmanghelidj MD explains the significant role that water plays in the following conditions and how dehydration can cause them.

Gastritis and Ulcers

The stomach contains a mucosal layer that protects it’s lining from the highly corrosive hydrochloric acid used to digest food. While it’s the sodium bicarbonate in this mucosal layer that neutralizes hydrochloric acid and protects the stomach lining from it, 98% of this layer is water.

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Although cardiovascular exercise is extremely popular, it’s a less effective way to exercise in most cases and can even be counterproductive.

The three primary reasons for the popularity of cardiovascular exercise are health, weight loss, and athletic conditioning. Each of these goals have unique characteristics that make cardiovascular exercise a questionable choice for achieving them.

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Although we’ve been conditioned to trust doctors with our health, many people are beginning to realize that prevention is the key to good health and that their doctors are letting them down.

Many of the health books I’ve read were written by medical doctors with a fully qualified MD degree that chose to practice alternative and natural medicine. One opinion they all tend to have in common is that modern health care is seriously flawed and that the problem originates within medical schools.

Medical School or Drug School?

Many doctors openly admit that while in medical school, they received virtually no education on nutrition or lifestyle and very little on vitamins. Nutrition and lifestyle are two of the most significant aspects of good health and are frequently associated with many of today’s most prominent and deadly diseases. Why is it that medical schools don’t recognize this? Perhaps they do but choose to ignore it.

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Links to high blood pressure and heart disease have created a fear of salt and encouraged a craze with low sodium diets. But is salt really something you need to worry about?

High blood pressure and heart disease are mostly a result of damaged arteries that are inflexible due to inflammation and scar tissue. Salt is just one tiny aspect of the much broader lifestyle choices that cause this. Furthermore, not all salts are created equal. The risks commonly associated with salt are highly dependent on it’s quality.

Refined Table Salt

The finely ground pure white salt that you commonly see in grocery stores and restaurants is highly refined and processed. As such, it contains chemical toxins, free radicals, and denatured nutrients that cause cell damage and malfunction. Artery problems are just one example of what can result. While refined table salt is definitely something you should avoid, this alone isn’t going to eliminate the risk factors of high blood pressure and heart disease.

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