Although chocolate has been shown to have a variety of impressive health benefits, there are a number of concerns to consider before consuming it specifically for this reason. Contrary to what you might think, the majority of these concerns aren’t related to the unhealthy characteristics of candy and other sweets that often lead people to classify chocolate as an indulgence food.

The previous article presented the many impressive health benefits of chocolate including a remarkably high antioxidant capacity, a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes, a reduced growth rate of several cancers, and even improved skin health. However, since each of these benefits can be obtained in other ways, the remaining question that needs to be answered is if chocolate should be consumed specifically to promote good health despite having some potentially harmful characteristics. The following issues provide some of the insight needed to answer this question.

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Although diet has an obvious association with body weight and health, you may be surprised by the possibility that it can also have a significant influence on your character.

While it might initially be difficult to believe that your diet can have such a strong influence on your behavior, it’s well established that adequate nutrition is critical to proper brain development and function. Based on this, it should be reasonable to expect that altered brain function can influence your thoughts and emotions, and in turn, influence the actions that define your character.

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It’s common for people to experience drowsiness after the large turkey dinners that are often a part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Although most people attribute the drowsiness to the tryptophan in turkey, this is unlikely to be the cause. Despite this somewhat negative perception of tryptophan, it’s actually an important nutrient that has considerable benefits.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that’s needed by the body to assemble proteins that are involved in numerous biological functions. Tryptophan is also an essential amino acid which means that it cannot be synthesized by the body and must be obtained through diet. When tryptophan is not consumed in adequate amounts, it can lead to a number of issues including mood disorders.

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More people than ever are taking psychiatric medications, many of which have dangerous side effects. Many of these people don’t even need the medications that they’re taking, and in some cases, the side effects can be fatal or cause permanent damage that’s much worse than the original diagnosis.

Psychiatric medications kill approximately 3,000 people every month which is more than two and a half times the number of people killed by homicide. Many people who take psychiatric drugs aren’t aware of such risks, and to make matters worse, many of these drugs are just barely more effective than a placebo. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of deception and conflict of interest behind the marketing, research, and prescribing of these medications, and it’s important for anyone who is or will be taking them to be aware of it.

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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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Gluten sensitivity is estimated to potentially affect nearly half of the population. Although this is a vague estimate, it’s clear that gluten poses a risk to the health of many people and can even cause many of today’s most serious diseases.

Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease result from the inability to completely digest the gluten proteins found in most grain based foods. Unfortunately, celiac disease often takes years to be diagnosed and gluten sensitivity is rarely even diagnosed at all. Because grains are such a significant part of the modern diet, many people who unknowingly don’t digest gluten well are consuming it on a regular basis and are destroying their health and inviting disease in the process.

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Are you depressed, anxious, irritable, tired, overwhelmed or emotionally fragile? These types of mood disorders have become shockingly common, and in many cases, can easily be resolved.

Depression and anxiety in particular have become so prevalent that it’s extremely common for people to be taking medication for one or even both of these mood disorders. In fact, the incidence of depression and anxiety has tripled since 1990 and more than a quarter of the adult population in the United States suffers from one or more mood disorders.

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