Chocolate lovers rejoice! Your favourite food might not be “unhealthy” much longer…

Chocolate is a huge guilty pleasure for most of us. Now they may have found a way to remove the guilt.

In fact, it soon could go as far as becoming a healthy pleasure.

According to The Independent, a researchers have announced a “medicinal chocolate”; a variety cuts fat and sugar levels down from an average of 75 per cent to a mere 35 per cent.

We have long known the benefits of cacao, a superfood rich in antioxidants. It can lower blood pressure, improve health of the liver, protect the nervous system, reduce risk of a stroke, prevent artery clogging, and even diminish excess appetite. It can often be found in weight loss supplements for this reason.

However, it’s also incredibly bitter. Most chocolates you buy will balance this out with fat and sugar, which effectively cancels out many of these benefits. Until now.

Kuka Xoco, the firm that developed this new chocolate, have used an obscure herb from the Andes as a de-bittering agent. The Independent reports that even a few micrograms of the plant can completely remove the bitterness from large amounts of cacao.

Gregory Aharonian, the firm’s chief scientist, said this discovery “eliminates the need for sugar, sweeteners and much of the fat in chocolate, unleashing the medical benefits of cacao”.

He said the company’s longer-term goal is to get the fat and sugar levels down to just 10%.

By removing the unhealthy aspects of chocolate, it could actually be transformed into a medicine, turning chocolate into a health food industry.

If chocolate manufacturers can remove as much fat and sugar as they can, Mr Aharonian believes the chocolate industry could double its profits by becoming a health food industry.

Are you excited by this development? Do you really expect to see chocolate become a medicinal or “healthy” food? Would it encourage you to eat more chocolate, or would it just take the fun out? Share your thoughts below!