Lavender and Lemon Chocolate – a Healthy Treat
Lavender and lemon – pretty unusual mix, right? Well it happens to go perfectly with dark chocolate, making for an incredibly delicious treat that has a ton of health benefits – like our lavender and lemon dark chocolate. Let’s further explore how this combination can benefit your mind and body.
Lavender – More Than a Treat For the Senses
You most likely know lavender not for its health benefits, but for the iconic color named after it, or the pleasant smell that is equally easy to recognize. You might now know that lavender isn’t exactly a flower. It can be considered an herb. The use of which goes back thousands of years. So, let’s cover why you will find lavender essential oil in our lavender and lemon chocolate:
1. It’s Great for Your Heart
You read that right, lavender has properties that take the stress off the heart. And it does a bit more than just calm you down. It helps lower blood pressure, which causes an untold wealth of health benefits.
High blood pressure can lead to many complications like a stroke, or a heart attack, not including the constant escalation of high blood pressure leading to stress, and stress looping back around to increase blood pressure further. Aromatherapy, or simply the smell of lavender is well documented as a way to naturally decrease blood pressure.
2. It Helps You Rest Easier
Few things are worse than not getting enough sleep. Insomnia and similar disorders lead to a massive list of health complications, from heart problems to just feeling terrible and unmotivated. Everyone is affected differently, but it’s never pleasant. What can lavender do for you? It’s proven that a bit of essential oil or the smell of lavender is useful when helping improve sleep quality. Pretty amazing, right?
3. A Natural Painkiller
While lavender isn’t quite as effective as taking ibuprofen, and maybe it might not be as strong as many medically used painkillers, it certainly has strong qualities that will ease pain. People even use it as a natural alternative for chronic pain treatment.
You might think that it sounds like a stretch, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, as lavender contains organic inflammation reducing chemicals. Aromatherapy and the smell of it can effectively help people with arthritis, or and similar inflammation-related conditions.
Who Should Avoid Lavender?
While the list of positive qualities can go on for hours – we didn’t even mention the way it can improve mental health – some people might want to steer clear of this wonder herb.
First of all, it’s speculated that young boys should avoid contact through skin, as lavender is observed to affect hormonal development. That, of course, goes with frequent contact. Secondly, some sources claim that pregnant women should also try to steer clear. While no scientific link confirming harm was found, there are records of frequent complaints of headaches, irritation and similar minor symptoms.
When Life Gives You Lemons…
…You thank it because lemons are absolutely amazing! Where do we even start, the list can be endless. Not only is the sour little gem is delicious when used right, like it is in our chocolate, but also improves your health at every turn:
1. It Makes for a Happy Tummy
I know, I know, we’ll get to vitamin C to, but let’s examine something else lemons have in spades – pectin? What exactly is it? It’s a soluble fiber that improves stomach and intestine health by aiding the digestion of sugar and similar substances. It can be found in both the pulp, skin, and of course our chocolate. Pretty amazing right?
2. It Helps Prevent Anemia
While lemons don’t contain tons of iron like raisins would, it finds a way to improve your health slightly differently. The consumption of lemons is especially good for anemics who prefer a plant-based diet – lemons help absorb iron from plants – that includes veggies and other fruits. So by pairing lemons with other iron-rich greenery you get to truly make the most out of the benefits they offer.
3. The Coveted Vitamin C
While scurvy isn’t a problem in the 21st century, there are plenty of other reasons vitamin C – including what you get in lemons – can improve health. Where do we start even start – it benefits your skin, digestive tract, joints and much more. It’s even known to reduce free radicals – material that causes changes in DNA that leads to cancer. In addition, without vitamin C we couldn’t make collagen, which is required for healthy bones, skin, and joints, as mentioned before.
Who Should Avoid Lemons?
Sadly, our world is a bit less than perfect, and there are people that cannot benefit from the many boons out there. As always, the first group is definitely people with allergies. Be sure to check with your physician and follow their nutritional guidelines.
Other people that should steer clear of lemons are the ones who have heartburn issues, stomach or intestine ulcers, or teeth issues. The acidity can worsen the state of tooth enamel and irritate sores.
So How Does Lavender and Lemon Chocolate Work?
The iconic, sweet aroma, paired with the light zesty taste of lemon, and the crunchy, bitter, organic dark chocolate. Such an amazing combination for your senses to enjoy! We recommend taking our luxurious sweet and pairing it with other fresh treats. Like a desert after a refreshing salad, or a less intense dry white wine. Does that not sound like the perfect end to a perfect dinner?
