Eat your fruits, veggies, and … chocolate? We all know chocolate tastes good, but did you know chocolate can make you feel good, too? It’s true! In light of the healthy eating habits many adopt at the beginning of the new year, we want to recommend another healthy habit to add to your list: snacking on just a bit of delicious Delysia chocolate each day. Here’s why you should add a dose of chocolate to your daily diet:

1. You’ll live longer. Diets rich in antioxidants are all the rage, with good reason. Antioxidants have been shown to be powerful anti-aging agents, and diets rich in them have been linked to longevity. The extra good news? Dark chocolate is chock full of these anti-aging fighters! Flavonoids in dark chocolate act as antioxidants and fight off free radicals in the body, which cause aging. In fact, good dark chocolate has eight times as many antioxidants as strawberries – so maybe try sprinkling a little sliced chocolate over your morning cereal instead. The higher the percentage of cocoa in chocolate the more antioxidants it contains, so try dark chocolate like Delysia’s Cranberry Pistachio Dark Chocolate Bark.

2. You’ll strengthen your heart. Here’s a heartening study from 2012: participants with a high risk for heart disease who ate a small piece of dark chocolate each day for ten years had a lower risk for both heart attack and stroke than their peers. Other studies have shown similar heart healthy results, and eating a bit of dark chocolate a day has been linked to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. So start this healthy habit now to reap the wellness benefits down the road.

3. You might actually stick to your diet. If you’ve vowed to eat better this year, adding chocolate to the mix might be a good move if you want to really suceed. Kale and carrots are nice and all, but inevitably you’ll start to lust after something a bit more indulgent. Yes, chocolate contains some fat – that’s part of what makes it taste so good – but its other health benefits make it a smart choice when you feel a craving coming on. Plus, with high-quality dark chocolate, it doesn’t take a lot to get your fix; a small piece of good chocolate is infinitely more satisfying than, say, a bag of potato chips. Allowing yourself a small amount of dark chocolate each day may increase your chances that you’ll actually stick to the diet this year – so good luck!

So yes, chocolate can be a part of a balanced diet, but there is a catch: the health benefits you’ll get from chocolate only come from the good stuff – milk chocolate candy bars you’ve snagged from a vending machine won’t do you much good. In addition to Delysia’s selection of dark chocolate bark, try a piece or two from Delysia’s Wellness Collection, which features green tea, bittersweet chocolate, and blueberry truffles.

Eating more chocolate? That’s one New Year’s resolution that should be pretty easy to keep.