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Dark Chocolate Is Healthy Chocolate

April 15, 2008

It's the best medical news in ages. Studies in two prestigious scientific journals say dark chocolate -- but not white chocolate or milk chocolate -- is good for you.

Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure
Dark chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.

Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.
"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."
Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble.

The Studies
Taubert's team signed up six men and seven women aged 55-64. All had just been diagnosed with mild high blood pressure -- on average, systolic blood pressure (the top number) of 153 and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of 84.
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.
In the second study, Serafini's team signed up seven healthy women and five healthy men aged 25-35. On different days they each ate 100 grams of dark chocolate by itself, 100 grams of dark chocolate with a small glass of whole milk, or 200 grams of milk chocolate.
An hour later, those who ate dark chocolate alone had the most total antioxidants in their blood. And they had higher levels of epicatechin, a particularly healthy compound found in chocolate. The milk chocolate eaters had the lowest epicatechin levels of all.

source: Web MD

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030827/dark-chocolate-is-healthy-chocolate

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Cocoa reduces high blood pressure but tea does not...according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine

NewsTarget)

Researchers from the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany compared the results of 10 different studies, five examining the effects of cocoa on blood pressure, and five examining the effects of tea. Both cocoa and tea are high in plant compounds called flavonoids, which prior studies have linked to reduced cholesterol levels and blood clotting risk.

In the five cocoa studies, conducted between 1966 and 2006, consumption of cocoa caused a lowering of blood pressure by an average of 4.7/2.8 mm Hg. In the five tea studies, no significant change was observed."This suggests that the different plant phenols must be differentiated with respect to their blood pressure-lowering potential and thus cardiovascular disease prevention," the researchers wrote.Tea is higher in the type of flavonoid called flavan-3-ols, while cocoa is higher in procyanids. The researchers said that the level of blood-pressure reduction observed in the cocoa studies would be sufficient to reduce the risk of stroke by 20 percent, the risk of coronary heart disease by 10 percent and the overall risk of premature death by 8 percent.But they warned that their results did not necessarily mean people should begin consuming large quantities of chocolate, dark or otherwise. For one thing, chocolate tends to be high in calories, and the negative effects of consuming a sugary, high-calorie food may outweigh any health benefits of the cocoa itself.For another thing, the manner in which the studies were conducted was rather artificial and its results may not translate well into the real world."In the studies we reviewed, the blood pressure results occurred with cocoa doses above the habitual intake and were observed only in the setting of short-term interventions," said lead researcher Dirk Taubert. "It is not known whether long-term intake of small habitual amounts of cocoa ... may also cause significant blood pressure effects."

"Cacao is a healing superfood," exclaimed Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in response to this study. "But its effects go far beyond merely balancing blood pressure. Raw cacao protects the liver, brain and heart. It stabilizes mood, helps detoxify the blood and in a very real way brightens your day." Adams emphasizes that only raw, unprocessed cacao offers the best benefits, and that consumers should avoid purchasing processed chocolate products made with refined sugar or milk fat.