If you’re looking for a little treat that won’t pack on the pounds or up your risk of diabetes, look no further. The answer is fruit. Not what you had in mind? Okay, let’s talk chocolate.

Dark chocolate can be a healthy indulgence as long as you watch your portions. It has a fair bit of nutrition and antioxidants that can protect your body and just make you feel good.

Read on for all the justification you need to indulge in a little chocolate every day.

1. Protects Against Heart Disease

Because the compounds in dark chocolate protect against the oxidation of LDL, less cholesterol will lodge in the arteries over time, lowering the risk of heart disease. Eating dark chocolate twice per week seems to reduce the risk of calcified plaque in the arteries by 32%. But why stop there? Eating dark chocolate more than 5x per week could lower the risk of heart disease by up to 57%!

Studies done on this effect have been largely observational, so we can’t be positive that it was the chocolate and nothing else that improved life expectancy.

However, we know that lowering blood pressure and oxidized LDL reduces the risk of heart disease, and that the antioxidants in dark chocolate have this effect. It’s not an unreasonable leap to credit the sweet indulgence.

2. Super Antioxidant Power

The way that scientists measure antioxidant capacity of foods is called ORAC, or oxygen radical absorbance capacity. Done in a test tube, dangerous free radicals are introduced to foods to see how well the antioxidants can neutralize them.

Performed in a laboratory, ORAC may not tell us exactly how the same food would respond in the body. However, raw and unprocessed cocoa beans score off the charts by this measure.

Of course, you don’t eat the beans raw, but dark chocolate does contain many compounds that function as antioxidants, including polyphenols, flavonols, catechins, and more. Dark chocolate contains more antioxidants overall than most other foods.

3. Better Cardiovascular Health

Before you get too excited, chocolate cannot stand in for blood pressure medication if you have a diagnosed issue. However, we know that flavonols in dark chocolate tend to stimulate the endothelium (lining of the arteries) to produce nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide sends a message to arteries to relax, thereby improving blood flow and lowering blood pressure.

The effects are typically mild and may not produce a significant effect in people who already have high blood pressure. If you are in the healthy range, though, eating dark chocolate may help you stay there.

4. Balances HDL and LDL Cholesterol

When doctors look at cholesterol levels, they consider the balance of LDL, or bad cholesterol, with HDL, or good cholesterol. Dark chocolate can improve this balance and reduce the risk of heart disease associated with high cholesterol.

LDL is particularly dangerous when it is oxidized, meaning that it has reacted with free radicals. Once oxidized, LDL particles are capable of damaging other tissues, especially the lining of the arteries in the heart.

Cocoa contains many powerful antioxidants that can lower oxidized LDL. It has also been shown in studies to increase HDL and lower overall LDL in those with high cholesterol.

5. Nutrition

You have to eat dark chocolate, rather than milk or white (which doesn’t actually count as chocolate at all) to benefit from nutrition. But when you choose dark chocolate with 70-85% cocoa, you’ll find that one 100-gram bar contains 11 grams of fiber and most of your daily recommended value for copper and manganese.

You’ll also get more than half of your daily iron and magnesium, plus some potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium.

However, 100 grams is probably more than you should eat in one day, as it also comes with 600 calories. Read the label to determine how much you can splurge on without exceeding a safe amount of added sugar.

6. Protects Skin from Sun Exposure

The flavonols in dark chocolate may be able to protect the skin from damage by the sun’s rays. There is a measure called MED, or minimal erythemal dose, that quantifies the minimum amount of UV rays that will cause reddening of the skin.

This is different for everybody, of course. But one study found that consuming dark chocolate daily over 12 weeks more than doubled the individual MED readings for the participants.

Flavonols can also improve blood flow to your skin and improve hydration and skin density. These are both things that keep the skin looking smooth, soft, and moisturized.

7. Stronger Brain Function

It’s all about the blood flow. Not just great for your heart and your skin, better blood flow to the brain makes a huge impact on cognition.

Healthy volunteers in a study that asked them to eat high-flavonol cocoa for five days all showed improved blood flow to the brain. It looks like cocoa can also help elderly people with mental impairment regain some lost verbal fluency.

We want to credit the antioxidant content of dark chocolate for the boost of brain function, and it certainly plays a key role. But let’s not forget the caffeine in chocolate, which gives your brain some nice stimulation in the short term. Nothing wrong with that – just giving credit where credit is due.

Yay! Dark chocolate is a yummy treat that’s actually good for you. But, it is a treat that also has a fair amount of sugar and can be easily overeaten.

We recommend saving your chocolate for that time of day when you really crave an indulgence – everyone has their weak moments. Choose quality dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa and take the time to really savor just a square or two.

The antioxidant power and mineral content of dark chocolate make it a smart choice, but remember that milk chocolate offers a much lower level of benefit, while white chocolate doesn’t provide any.

They both have way more sugar to boot. As long as you stick to the dark stuff, you’ll be doing your body good.