While dark chocolate has been touted as a “superfood” for many years now, studies on the popular treat’s health benefits have been fairly vague. Recently, though, researchers have concluded that dark chocolate is good for the gut. Researchers with the American Chemical Society in Dallas, Texas, presented evidence of how dark chocolate consumption benefits the digestive track. In their experiment, they exposed multiple types of cocoa powder to digestive juices and enzymes within a modified test tube replica of the digestive system. After simulated digestion occurred, researchers discovered long molecules called polyphenol polymers, which remained within the gastrointestinal tract. These long molecules were too large to cross the walls of the gut and be used as nutrients, but they found that those long molecules do a lot of work breaking down molecules in the colon to extract more nutrients. The extracted nutrients were also found to be anti-inflammatory, which can prevent or delay some cardiovascular diseases linked with inflammation. (ecorazzi.com)