One more reason to eat the dark stuff: A piece of dark chocolate everyday can help to lower your blood pressure. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association randomly assigned 44 adults diagnosed with hypertension to eat a piece of dark or white chocolate (one block of a 16-piece. 100g bar) daily for 18 weeks.

After the study period, researchers discovered that the participants’ average blood pressure had decreased and the cases of hypertension declined to 68%. Serum biomarkers credit the improvement to dark chocolate, suggesting that it lowers blood pressure by decreasing nitric oxide production (an essential component for blood flow regulation), hence dilating blood vessels.