Chocolate's not healthy at all

 Chocolate often gets a bad rep for being bad for you. "It's full of caffeine and sugar". "It will make you sick if you eat to much". These and more are the most common complaints about chocolate. People turn a blind eye to the good things about chocolate though. It's not this evil temptation treat
 that people make it out to be. Especially dark chocolate. Sure, it's not as nutritious as an apple, but it has its advantages too! Dark chocolate, for example, has many antioxidants like Flavonol. In fact, your average dark chocolate bar has the same amount of antioxidants as 2/3 cups of blueberries! 10% of a good quality bar of dark chocolate is fiber. Eating it also stimulates the production of Nitric Oxide in your body, which serves in part to "send signals to the arteries to relax, which lowers resistance to blood flow and therefore reduces blood pressure" (www.authoritynutrition.com).

White Chocolate is still chocolate

 

Well, many people argue that because white chocolate has cocoa butter, it must be chocolate. But, technically, and legally, that just isn't enough to call it chocolate. If it doesn't have cocoa powder, it likely isn't chocolate, and white chocolate just doesn't. Cocoa butter "doesn’t contain any of the flavor-giving cocoa solids" (Michael Laiskonis*). In fact is really just "edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean" (USDA). The butter is combined with milk powder and also sugar to turn it into what we call white chocolate. But, let's be honest. Whether or not it's "real chocolate" isn't going to make us stop calling it chocolate. To most of us, it still is, and always will be chocolate.

*Creative director of the Institute for Culinary Education

Chocolate = Acne?

Welcome to the second edition of Chocolate Month! Okay so, a lot of people, mainly teens, claim that eating chocolate causes breakouts in facial acne. Since the 1960s, scientists have tried time and time again to prove whether or not there is actually a correlation between chocolate and acne. They have had no success. Until now. Sadly, a French study found that some of their subjects did get acne, however, they didn't take precautions to prevent other factors from messing with their results. So, maybe, this study can be discredited. Even so, according to Rachel Nazarian, a dermatologist from the Schweiger Dermatology Group, sugars and certain fats have shown to "cause the sebum in ...pores to become thicker and less fluid, so instead of moving dead skin cells lining ...pores to the surface, it forms a plug that clogs the pore, and eventually causes a blemish". So, if the chocolate in question is high in these, which, surprisingly, isn't very common, it might cause some acne. Even so, it is unlikely unless you have sensitive skin.

Verdict: maybe

It causes HEADACHES?!

Yup, this is one that has everyone with chronic migraines on edge!
People are scared to enjoy a chocolate bar! NO! Chocolate is supposed to bring joy and  ​satisfaction! NOT pain... right?

Well, a study from a LONG time ago said;
 

"well uh... maybe? Uhm... AMINES!!!" 

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OKAY, okay, so maybe it didn't say that EXACTLY, but it basically stated that a possible cause of headaches could be stuff with names that end in 'amines,' like 'histamines' that are in foods like, you know, CHOCOLATE. So there, that's it.

Verdict: T̶R̶U̶E̶      NEVER EVER EAT CHOCOLATE EVER AGAIN

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  CALM DOWN! BREATH!
Why? Because "a [more recent] study by the University of Pittsburgh has shown no link between chocolate and headaches," and that other study? It "eliminated chocolate as a possible headache cause," so actually:

Eat ON!!

Verdict: when has this ever been true...​

Twinkies last FOR. EVER.

Betcha didn't notice the Twinkie in Wall-e, did ya! Yup. Well, it's a long-held myth that Twinkies last for ever. It interests the best of us, including a chemistry teacher in 1976. Mr. Roger Bennatti "placed it on top of his chalkboard for an experiment to observe decay (or lack thereof) in preserved foods," and it stayed there for 30 years (http://bangordailynews.com). It is actually still at the school where he worked, at George Stevens Academy.
Wanna see?
No?
Sorry! ^.^

As you can probably see, the Twinkie is intact. Even so, I for one, would NEVER eat it. Sorry, but they're simply not immortal. Even Hostess doesn't believe it! They said that the new Twinkies now have a shelf life of 45 days. It is better than the old one, which survived around 25 days, but not everlasting. That's for sure.

Verdict: False... sorry

Drink 8 glasses of water everyday

It sounds healthy, and for some people, it does work, but there's one reason why this is a myth. Everyone is different! For example, the average 4-year old should only drink 4-5 glasses of water, so 8 is of course too much. Drinking too much water can overwhelm your body, making you lightheaded and/or dizzy. According to listverse.com, the amount of water you drink depends on other factors besides age too, "including your body size, the local climate, and how much physical activity you undertake. The Institute of Medicine suggests that the average adult man should drink about 13 cups of liquid (not necessarily water) every day, while the average adult woman should drink about nine cups per day". See? 8 glasses (or cups) of water isn't an amount that universally works! Ask your doctor to check what amount best fits you personally. Otherwise, enjoy water!

Verdict: FALSE-ish

Exercise = Better Bones?

It's something even some doctors dare to say: "Exercise to strengthen your bones!". It has been in magazines, tv shows, even to advertise exercise equipment. Is it true? Well, by now you can guess the answer: it is false. Where did it come from? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that when one is bedridden, they tend to lose bone density. People then began to believe that, by default, this must mean that being up and active, not only prevents bone loss, but strengthens bones too. Over a decade ago, it was tested whether exercise actually did anything. Their studies "failed to find anything more than a minuscule exercise effect — on the order of 1 percent or less, which is too small to be clinically significant... There was no evidence that bone was gained when people walked or ran" (www.nytimes.com). One might argue that these and other tests show some effect, and that this is enough to prove exercise helps. But, in reality, "there is no evidence that they make bone stronger or protect it from osteoporosis" (www.nytimes.com). Now, that doesn't mean exercise is useless and you can just avoid it. After all, it does strengthen your muscles!

Verdict: FALSE