posted on November 6, 2000 08:31:54 AM new
October 31, 2000
Chocolate a Health Food? Maybe, but Keep the Aspirin
By LAURIE TARKAN
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Will chocolate be as intensely craved and taste as richly luscious if it is no longer viewed as a sinful treat, but, quite the contrary, a health food?
Indeed, chocolate and cocoa drinks, it turns out, contain an abundant dose of flavonoids, potent antioxidants that have been found most notably in red wine, green tea and fruits and vegetables, and have been associated with a decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. With Americans consuming chocolate at the rate of 3.3 billion pounds a year, researchers have taken a keen interest in whether chocolate may also lower risks of heart disease.
The August issue of The Journal of Nutrition devoted an entire supplement to several preliminary studies that look at whether chocolate's flavonoids, called epicatechins, affect various risk factors like cholesterol levels and artery-damaging plaque buildup.
Much of the research has been financed by the candy manufacturer Mars Inc. and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, but some money has come from the National Institutes of Health.
In one small study, at the University of California at Davis, 20 subjects ate varying portions of M&M's Semisweet Chocolate Mini Baking Bits. Within two hours, the level of epicatechins in their blood had jumped exponentially, an effect that faded in six hours. They also showed more antioxidant activity and reductions in the oxidization of low density lipoproteins (L.D.L.), the bad cholesterol because of its role in plaque buildup and damaged artery walls, or atherosclerosis, said Dr. Carl L. Keen, a study co- author. Many researchers believe that oxidized L.D.L. is more damaging to the arteries than ordinary L.D.L. Other studies have shown that chocolate, similar to aspirin, reduces the activity of blood platelets that contribute to plaque and blood-clotting.
"This is the type of effect the physician is after when he suggests taking that baby aspirin once a day," Dr. Keen said.
He and other researchers do not recommend that people switch from a daily aspirin to a daily chocolate bar. Aspirin is a more potent antiplatelet than chocolate, and its benefits may stem from its anti-inflammatory properties or other actions.
More evidence of possible health benefits comes from a 1998 study of 7,841 men in the continuing Harvard alumni study. The men answered a 1988 survey on their habits, including how much candy (all sweets) they ate in the preceding year. Five years later, looking at death certificates, researchers found the rate of death was 30 percent lower in men who ate candy than abstainers after factoring in diet, drinking and smoking. The candy-eaters lived on average almost a year longer.
Nonetheless, these studies are all preliminary, and there are no gold-standard studies, randomized double-blind trials of chocolate showing that it reduces heart disease, compared with a placebo.
Nor is chocolate going to get a clean bill of health very easily.
Critics of the premise that chocolate is healthful point out that chocolate also contains fat, and eating too much fat contributes to cholesterol and weight gain — both bad for the heart. It so happens, however, that cocoa is high in stearic acid, a neutral fatty acid that does not appear to raise L.D.L. and may raise high density lipoprotein (H.D.L.), the good cholesterol.
The catch is that chocolate is usually eaten as milk chocolate, candy, cookies and cake — treats containing fattening and unhealthful ingredients.
"I wouldn't go so far as to recommend chocolate like fruits and vegetables, largely because of the nutrients that it hangs around with," said Dr. Penny Kris-Etherton, a distinguished professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University.
"What my research is showing is that you shouldn't think that chocolate is a bad food if it's eaten in the context of a good diet, but you can't go out and eat a lot of it," she said. "Chocolate has a lot of calories, and we do know that weight is a problem in this country and has a lot of negative effects on morbidity and mortality."
Even if someone wanted to eat chocolate for good health, it would be difficult. Commercial chocolates contain varying amounts of flavonoids, with some having double the amount in an 8-ounce glass of red wine and others having none. And though dark chocolate contains more cocoa, and the premium dark chocolates even more (weighing in at 77 percent), there is no guarantee that they have higher levels of antioxidants than milk chocolate. The darks are, however, lower in saturated fat, making them a slightly more beneficial choice.
White chocolate has no flavonoids.
Mars, which has sponsored much of the research, has stepped in to give health- conscious chocolate eaters a hand, and presumably get an edge over the competition. It has patented a chocolate high in flavonoids, called Cocoapro, which is beginning to appear on some of its candy bars.
posted on November 6, 2000 08:45:09 AM new
Thanx Reston!....3 weeks on a sugar free diet and I'm lookin' for any excuse to dive into the Halloween Chocolate!.....If I read between the lines, ok if I actually read every other line in your posting, looks like I found my excuse!!!....
Watch out kids....Mommy's comin' & she's after your kit-kats!!!!!!
posted on November 6, 2000 08:49:59 AM new
Everyone,
I'm sorry, but this thread does not concern auctions, and I'm going to have to lock it up. If you'd like to continue this discussion, please start a thread in the Round Table Forum.
