There's plenty of mystique tied to chocolate. Over the centuries, cocoa has been touted as an aphrodisiac and a health elixir. The Mayans even used cocoa as a form of cash and buried their aristocrats with it. It appears they believed that "it helped people get into the afterlife and survive in the afterlife," says Nat Bletter, an ethnobotanist and chocolate-maker.
As myths have evolved over cocoa's several thousand year history as a food, so too has the scientific pursuit to understand how it may influence our health. Cocoa contains lots of bioactive compounds called flavanols, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In recent years, studies have shown the flavanols in cocoa can help improve blood flow and lower blood pressure.
