9 Health Benefits of Chocolate

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Superfoods don't just come from your supermarket's produce aisle. In fact those chocolate candy bars next to the gummy bears now qualify. Study after study proves that dark chocolate—sweet, rich, and delicious—is good for more than curing a broken heart. The secret behind its powerful punch is cacao, also the source of the sweet's distinct taste. Packed with healthy chemicals like flavonoids and theobromine, this little bean is a disease-killing bullet. The only problem? Cacao on its own is bitter, chalky, nasty stuff. Enter milk, sugar, and butter—good for your taste buds, not always good for your health. Besides adding calories, these can dilute the benefits of cacao. So snack smart: Stick to healthy chocolate with at least 70 percent cacao (or cocoa, which is cacao in its roasted, ground form). As long as the content is that high, says Mary Engler, Ph.D., a professor of physiological nursing at the University of California at San Francisco, you can reap the be...
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3 Ways to Get Rid of Your Stubborn Menopause Belly Fat

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According to the National Institute on Aging, the average age a woman experiences her final period and enters menopause is 51 years of age. Of course, this can vary by quite a lot, meaning some women enter menopause in their early 40s, while others may not do so until their late 50s. As a woman’s estrogen production plummets, weight gain in the midsection may become a struggle. The Mayo Clinic, however, states that the ‘middle-age spread’ doesn’t have to be inevitable.


The Beginning of the Process Some women notice belly fat and other weight gain as soon as they enter perimenopause, which can range from anywhere in the mid-30s to the mid-50s. During this transition period, a woman’s body slows its estrogen production. This, possibly coupled with a more sedentary lifestyle, can lead to stubborn belly fat.

 A Three-Prong Approach to Beating Menopausal Belly Fat While every woman’s body and lifestyle is unique, there are three main strategies for ridding yourself of belly fat: increased exercise, ingesting fewer calories and drinking adequate amounts of water. If you do these three things, weight loss is guaranteed. With that said, it’s important to remember that you cannot ‘spot train’ your body to store fat where you want it. The National Institutes of Health conducted a large-scope study and determined that the distribution of fat is largely genetic. If your body is hard-wired to store fat on your belly, losing fat overall is the only way to combat it.

 Exercise for a Trim Tummy To best way to melt fat is aerobic exercise. While crunches and sit-ups can tighten the muscles of your abdominal wall, losing the fat covering those muscles is best accomplished by exercise that gets your heart pumping and your blood flowing. Biking, swimming, and walking are all great, low-impact options. If you’re an outdoors buff, or were in your younger years, activities like hiking, kayaking and rock-climbing are all wonderful aerobic exercise. Of course, speak to your doctor about your exercise plan before you begin. While gaining belly fat during menopause and perimenopause is caused by hormonal shifts and, possibly, a more sedentary lifestyle, extra weight doesn’t have to be a certainty.

 Staying well hydrated, watching your caloric intake and participating in aerobic exercise can help you keep or regain your trim stomach for life.

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