The latest from the research world as it applies to our world …

Chocolate: the new super fruit

You’d expect scientific news about chocolate coming out of the Hershey Center for Heath & Nutrition to be favorable toward the brown elixir. And you wouldn’t be disappointed.
Chocolate, which recently has been embraced as the ultimate recovery drink by recovering athletes, has been deemed by the Hershey center as a rich source of antioxidants, those naturally occurring elements that helps us fight disease. Further, chocolate contains more polyphenols and flavanols than fruit juice. The testing found this property for antioxidants in dark chocolate and cocoa. (Hot chocolate was also tested, but proved not as rich in antioxidants because of the processing involved.

Read more here.

Exercise: Out beats in

Research again confirms what most of us already know: Exercising outdoors beats exercising indoors. The latest evidence: A research team from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry looked at 11 control trials involving 833 folks who exercised indoors vs. those who exercised out, and found that the latter experienced “greater feelings of revitalisation (Peninsula is in the UK) increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression.” They also liked exercising outdoors better than in.

Read more here