Five Reasons to Give In and Eat Chocolate

Chocolate is dang near the yummiest thing on the planet, as any chocoholic will tell you. Sadly, though, chocolate has the same problem as most delicious food items: it's fattening. It turns the staunchest of dieters into big tubs of guts just by doing what it does best, and that's tasting awesome.

So why bother fighting the trend? Give in to chocolate. Let it consume you as much as you consume it. Don't fight. That just takes up some time and energy you could devote to ingesting chocolate.

Here are five reasons why eating chocolate might not be as bad as it sounds. Take 'em to heart to make yourself feel better the next time you have half a Toblerone bar shoved down your throat.

Though perhaps not as loved as its milky kin, dark chocolate is allegedly better for the body, according to the National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome (and this article). According to one of their studies, one that chocolate lovers the world over loved to hear, the antioxidants in dark chocolate help break down harmful molecules involved in any number of heart diseases.

The catch? Milk chocolate is exempt. Boo.

Only in older generations, sadly, but once again dark chocolate proves decent in small amounts according to the University of Cologne in Germany. It can lower blood pressure if ingested in moderate doses, probably meaning a few quick bites a day. Just keep in mind that nothing's good in overabundance.

Yep, according to a number of studies bent on making us all feel better about gorging on chocolate, coco - the base for all chocolate products - is good for the brain, the heart, the skin, even the muscles. Imagine engaging in an exercise regime that included mowing down on a Oh Henry! every day.

Almost literally, it seems. Women have, for ages, debated whether men or chocolate products are more satisfying in the long run, and it seems as though combining the two - even at the same time! - is a great way to boost one's sex drive. Natural coco seems to act as a stimulant to spur on those fleshly desires that already come often to many couples. There's even some talk of chocolate being good enough to replace sex for women... though we won't talk about that, right, guys? Right.

Chocolate is energy. It boosts the body and kicks muscles into overdrive. More, though, chocolate also seems capable of actually acting as a fuel: in 2009 WorldFirst created the world's first chocolate powered racing car, capable of zipping around at high speeds on a potent cocktail of vegetable oil and waste chocolate. Not the kind anyone would eat, true, but who would have thought that your gas tank might taste good in the future?

Just eat it already. Om nom nom.