This is why eating chocolate in winter is good for you - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life This is why eating chocolate in winter is good for you By You Magazine - September 28, 2018 It’s official: eating chocolate is good for you – especially during the cold, dark winter months, according to a new study. It’s been said plenty of times that chocolate is packed with mood-elevating benefits and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. But the new research, which was published in the journal Food Chemistry, has found that foods that are rich in cocoa, including cocoa butter, cocoa beans, cocoa powder and dark chocolate, provide a previously unknown source of vitamin D2. That’s right, chocolate is practically part of your five a day. Getty Images As humans, our main source of vitamin D comes from sunlight projecting directly on the skin. Therefore, it is no surprise that approximately 10 million people in the UK develop low vitamin D stores between October and early March, due to a lack of sunshine. This deficiency can lead to serious health implications as vitamin D is crucial for growth and development, but luckily, chocolate is here to save the day. Scientists at Martin Luther University (MLU) Halle-Wittenberg and the Max Rubner-Institut found that chocolate contains significant amounts of vitamin D2. Getty Images Obviously, this is great news for chocoholics as the human body needs to hit a daily vitamin D quota for strong bones and combating illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease and infections. This means that a daily dose of chocolate can be essential to your health – and if ever there was an excuse to crack open a box of Celebrations, this is it. Though it’s probably good to know that according to the study, cocoa butter and dark chocolate contain the highest amounts of the sunshine vitamin, followed by milk chocolate, with white chocolate having the least -so pick your choice of chocolates accordingly. What’s more? The good news could see cocoa products being recommended as a vital food source for people deficient in vitamin D or those at risk of brittle bones and respiratory diseases. We don’t quite imagine our doctors will be prescribing Cadbury’s bars just yet, but we can dream… RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR Everything we know about The Crown season 5 Aldi s exercise equipment is on sale with up to 50% off The best Halloween events for 2022 across the UK Popular in Life The You magazine team reveal their New Year s resolutions December 31, 2021 Susannah Taylor The TLC tools your body will love January 23, 2022 How to stop living in fear February 6, 2022 Susannah Taylor My pick of the fittest leggings February 27, 2022 Women’ s Prize for Fiction 2022 winner announced June 17, 2022 These BBC dramas are returning for a second series June 30, 2022 Susannah Taylor gives the lowdown on nature s little helper – CBD April 17, 2022 The baby names that are banned across the world April 27, 2022 The Queen has released her own emojis May 26, 2022 Sally Brompton horoscopes 27th June-3rd July 2022 June 26, 2022 Popular CategoriesFood2704Life2496Fashion2240Beauty1738Celebrity1261Interiors684 Sign up for YOUMail Thanks for subscribing Please check your email to confirm (If you don't see the email, check the spam box) Fashion Beauty Celebrity Life Food Privacy & Cookies T&C Copyright 2022 - YOU Magazine. All Rights Reserved