There’s more to chocolate than its exquisite taste. With more and more research, we are coming to understand the many ways in which chocolate is healthy for you. It comes down to a natural ingredient of chocolate called flavonoids. These “antioxidants” do marvelous things for your body.

Flavonoids come from plants, like the cocoa plant. They are a plant’s way of protecting itself. Well, we share some things with plants. Flavonoids do something similar in the human body taking away free radicals, which prevent and stop cell damage.  Wait, it gets better.

Flavanols, the type of flavonoid in chocolates, improves vascular health. It lowers blood pressure. It lowers cholesterol. It makes blood platelets less sticky, increasing blood flow.

Alright, now it isn’t just any chocolate. Some chocolate, like the stuff you find in a grocery store, loses flavonoids because of over-processing. The chocolate most likely to keep flavonoids isn’t commercial chocolate but gourmet chocolate, like the chocolate from Jacques Torres and Martine’s served at AYZA. It’s true that all chocolate isn’t created equally (and not only taste wise). If you want the health benefits, choose dark chocolate because it has more flavonoids and isn’t as full of fats and sugars.

Chocolate, along with tasting terrific, has other things up its sleeve. Chocolate stimulates endorphins and has serotonin. Both make you feel good. Add to that a mild stimulant effect from theobromine and caffeine, and you’re in heaven. See science confirms what your taste buds have been saying for years.

Now, most research tells you to regulate your chocolate intake. On a day to day basis, that’s a good strategy, but when you come to AYZA, you’ve come for a certain degree of hedonism. And with gourmet chocolate, you’ll get the most benefit for the fats and calories. And the best taste too.

Also, as everyone has a limit to how much chocolate they consume, to get the most out of chocolate, let it sit in your mouth. You aren’t in a hurry.

So gone are the days when you feel guilty about eating chocolate. And since AYZA has gourmet chocolate to spare, coupled with great food and fine wine, we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw you soon.