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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When faced with a challenge, whether good or bad, many people have a long list of excuses why they don’t fully dedicate themselves to overcoming it. While the need to make changes may seem unpleasant or overwhelming, the long term consequences of not doing so are often far worse. There are few things that this applies to more so than your health.

Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, you only have one chance to make the best of the life you’re currently living. If you fail to address the many challenges that modern life poses to our health, you may find yourself physically or mentally incapable of living the type of life that you’d like to live. In short, you have the choice of dealing with discomfort now or increasing your chances of having to endure misery later.

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Hydrogenated oil is an ingredient in an overwhelming number of foods, and despite the fact that it’s a serious health risk, most people don’t know what it is or that it even exists.

David Burton, a cardiac nurse, was shocked when he learned that hydrogenated oil is trans fat and that it’s a major risk for heart disease. As a nurse who treats patients suffering from heart disease, he was disappointed and frustrated by the fact that his training didn’t provide him with this information and that his fellow nurses and doctors weren’t aware of it either. Most unsettling was the realization that he was feeding this dangerous ingredient to his two year old daughter. He responded by making an informative documentary about trans fat that everyone should see.

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Although milk is one of the most common foods in the modern diet, pasteurization and modern dairy farming practices pose a number of concerns. In addition, many people are unable to properly digest dairy and it’s also one of the most common sources of food sensitivities which can cause a number of seemingly unrelated symptoms. As if this isn’t enough to worry about, there’s unfortunately another important and potentially harmful aspect of milk to consider.

Two varieties of proteins exist in milk. The most prominent is casein which represents 80% of the protein in milk, and the other, which is much more widely recognized, is whey. The digestion of a specific type of casein has been found to produce an opioid byproduct that can be very problematic for humans as well as animals. There’s strong evidence that links this casein and its opioid derivative with heart disease, mental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, type 1 diabetes, and a number of other autoimmune disorders. Fortunately, there are simple ways to avoid these risks.

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The food industry claims to be doing us a favor by implementing a new food labeling system that will help us make better choices at the grocery store. However, a closer look reveals that it’s probably nothing more than a marketing campaign.

This labeling system is known as the Smart Choices Program and the foods that it endorses bear a badge with a green check mark. Despite the name of the program, some of the foods that proudly display the green check mark aren’t smart choices at all.

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As promised, president Obama has been focused on making major changes to our broken health care system. Despite the volatile mix of passionate support and heated opposition that it’s inspired, both sides are completely neglecting the most important issue.

There’s no doubt that health insurance is important. We all want the comfort of knowing that we can rely on quality health care during times of need without incurring a lifetime of debt. Unfortunately, the rapidly growing cost of health care has risen out of reach for many people, and as a result, has created a significant challenge for the US government that is likely to affect us all.

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While the media frenzy surrounding the so called swine flu pandemic is causing many people to panic, we have much more serious problems to worry about such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Despite the fact that these diseases are killing people in much larger proportions than any pandemic we’ve had in modern times, many of us have grown numb to their frightening prevalence.

In a single day, more people die in the United States alone from any one of these diseases than the total number of people who’ve died worldwide from the recent outbreak of swine flu. What we should really be concerned about is not a pandemic of swine flu, but rather an epidemic of poor health!

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Blood sugar is vital to human function and must be consistently kept at a steady level to maintain good health. The failure to do so is a primary cause of many modern health complaints and diseases.

Blood sugar is the glucose that circulates in the blood stream and provides cells with much of the energy they need to function. It’s most commonly obtained through the digestion of food and is especially important to the brain and nervous system. Because of the many critical functions that depend on it, and because it’s toxic in excessive concentrations, blood sugar levels that are too low or too high can be extremely dangerous and are dealt with by the body in an urgent manner.

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Today, I had two seemingly unrelated events inspire some interesting thoughts. As I was leaving an appointment for an eye exam and heading to have my driver’s license renewed, I suddenly felt a sense of appreciation.

Because I am at risk for glaucoma, I need to have my eyes tested more frequently than most people. Although my eyesight has been nearly perfect for a long time, I always struggle with the last line of letters on the eye testing chart and it bothers me every time, especially since the letter O always appears as a D from one eye. Coincidental to the purpose of my appointment, I also needed the eye exam to renew my driver’s license.

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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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