Most people experience some form of depression during their lifetime. If someone was to search the Internet for how to treat depression, they would probably find the usual unpronouncable brand names of prescription drugs. However, there is also a master drug that most people love and indulge in quite regularly – chocolate.

Chocolate comes from the cacao beans, cultivated in the Mesoamerican region for the past 300 years. It was primarily used as a beverage throughout its history. Solid chocolate, the most common form of this delicious medicine, is a 19th century invention. Joseph Fry invented the chocolate bar in 1847 by mixing cocoa butter with dutched chocolate and sugar, making a paste than could be molded into a bar.

Dentists are right that persistent use of chocolate as an antidepressant can destroy the your teeth. There are, however, other beneficial properties of chocolate. First, chocolate is a mood elevator. It increases the serotonin levels in the brain, thus acting as a brain stimulator. One of the first things to do if you are feeling down then, is to eat a small bar of chocolate.

Additionally, the flavanoids present in cocoa are known to be good for the heart. They prevent inflammation as well as cell damage. Chocolate beverages help reduce fatigue during the normal workday. Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University, published a paper in August 2005, in the journal Hypertension, where he showed that eating a few small bites of chocolate every week, equivalent to 3.5 ounces, can reduce hypertension by a significant amount.

So, next time someone says no to chocolate, you can show them these facts and share a healing bar of chocolate with them.