Encouraging Health

Chocolate is found to have more and more health benefits the longer the medical community studies it. So far, Chocolate (dark chocolate, specifally) is shown to help victims of dementia and high blood pressure, not to mention it’s flavanols, which are antioxidants found in cocoa beans, that help to boost the immune system of those with autoimmune diseases, such as HIV and those on immunosuppressants.

In today’s day and age, medical researchers are still seeing cases of dementia, one of the unfortunate symptoms of advanced HIV disease, and are looking for ways to improve brain functioning. Flavanols can increase blood flow to the brain, researchers have said. This raises the prospect of using flavanols in the treatment of dementia, marked by decreased blood flow in the brain, and in maintaining overall cardiovascular health. The next step, researchers said, is to move from healthy subjects to people who have “compromised” blood flow to the brain.
Norman Hollenberg of Harvard Medical School said he found similar health benefits in the Cuna Indian tribe in Panama. They drink cocoa exclusively and do not have high blood pressure. In addition to having low blood pressure, Hollenberg said, there are no reports of dementia among the native Cuna.

Some people get all the luck.

However, when tribe members move to cities, their blood pressure rises.
Another study of six men and seven women aged 55-64. All had just been diagnosed with mild high blood pressure. Every day for two weeks, they ate a 100-gram candy bar and were asked to balance its 480 calories by not eating other foods similar in nutrients and calories. Half the patients got dark chocolate and half got white chocolate.

Those who ate dark chocolate had a significant drop in blood pressure (by an average of 5 points for systolic and an average of 2 points for diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate did not.

What is it about dark chocolate? The answer is plant phenols — cocoa phenols, to be exact. These compounds are known to lower blood pressure. A major difference in both the Cuna Indian Tribe and the second study is the consumption of dark chocolates, which is high in flavanols. In the case of the Cuna Indians, all they drank is their own chocolate; in cities they adopt the local diet.

Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure — if you’ve reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, keep in mind: Dark chocolate — not white chocolate — lowers high blood pressure

The cocoa typically sold in American markets is low in flavanols, which usually are removed because they impart a bitter taste. He also said the findings do not mean people should indulge in chocolate. Chocolates made in Europe are generally richer in cocoa phenols; so if you’re going to try this at home, remember: Darker is better.

Another bit of good news, is in cocoa a lot of fat is removed from the chocolate. But you still have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things. You have to remember two things.

First, flavonoid content varies markedly in chocolate products, so you might not be getting the healthy stuff with that candy bar.

And second, along with the flavonoids, chocolate products also deliver lots and lots of calories. 100 grams of dark chocolate, for instance, yields approximately 500 calories, and eating this much chocolate daily without adjusting for the increase in calories will produce a weight gain of about 1 pound per week.

So any benefit you might gain by eating chocolate could be completely negated by making yourself obese.

Furthermore - and importantly for those who adhere religiously to one or another mutually-exclusive dietary philosophies - these extra calories are packaged both as fat and as carbohydrates. This means that adding chocolate to your diet will violate both low fat and low carb dietary rules.

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