Specific Easter treat could reduce risk of heart disease

Millions of chocolate Easter eggs will be gobbled up this weekend and while overindulgence in the sweet treat is never a good idea, it may have some unexpected health benefits if you’ve chosen your chocolates correctly.

Health experts explained the health benefits of dark chocolate and how it could impact your heart, cholesterol and brain. These chocolates usually have around 35 to 90 percent cocoa solids, more than other chocolate types, while also generally having less sugar and dairy content.

Heart health

It’s the high cocoa content that gives dark chocolate some advantages in protecting your heart. As BHF Senior Dietitian Dell Stanford explained: “Cocoa solids are a good source of flavanols, a type of chemical that naturally occurs in plants.

“Flavanols give dark chocolate its slightly bitter taste, and its potential health benefits such a helping to lower blood pressure and making blood vessels more flexible.”

A review in 2025 found that flavanol-containing foods, including cocoa, had the potential to reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases as well as lowering high blood pressure. However, commercial chocolates usually have less flavanol levels that cocoa bean products used in studies.

Cocoa nibs contain some of the highest levels of flavanols while milk chocolate has no flavanols but the amount in milk and dark chocolates can greatly differ and isn’t even related to the percentage of cocoa.

Flavanol content is not usually put on labels so it can be impossible to tell how much your chosen chocolate contains. In the UK, cocoa products can be labelled ‘rich in flavanols’ only if it provides 200mg per day, which most chocolates simply can’t do.

It’s also not entirely possible to get all the flavanols you need from dark chocolate alone as you’d need to eat so much you’d start suffering negative health effects from the sugar and fats.

Brain

The flavanols in dark chocolate can also improve oxygen levels, nerve function and blood flow in the brain. The flavanols have been linked to increased nerve cell growth, especially in the hippocampus, according to ZOE.

Research with rats have previously suggested that flavanols may protect the brain against declining function and conditions like dementia but more studies are needed to prove this.

Cholesterol

Dark chocolate also usually has high levels of polyphenols. These can increase the ‘good’ cholesterol in your body while also decreasing the ‘bad’ cholesterol levels. However, these benefits can be undone if you are eating too much chocolate because of the sugar and saturated fats it holds, according to the BHF.

ZOE’s Professor Tim Spector recommends going for chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa, while also being wary of chocolates that may look dark but still have high levels of refined sugar or dairy.