Chocolate Sauce » chocolate

Eat Chocolate to Reduce Hypertension?

jbchristensen — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:52:01 +0000

In the past, I’ve made a few posts regarding dark chocolate and hypertension. Here’s a link to a brief article that reminds us that indeed, research indicates that dark chocolate can improve blood pressure and may improve cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity.

http://www.ephit.com/coventry_contest/chocolate.htm

The article also points out that processing removes much of the benefits of the chocolate.

If you’d be interested in dark chocolate that is minimally processed (not dutched and is cold pressed), please e-mail me and I’d be happy to send you some information. My contact info is in the “About” page.

Black and Blue

jbchristensen — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:58:17 +0000

One of the things I mention in my disclaimer is to do your own research. One reason for that is ultimately, each of us is responsible for our own health. Your health care provider can’t know everything and can’t keep up with all the research that is constantly presented. You should, of course, tell him/her all prescriptions, herbs and supplements you are taking, but the provider may not know how they all interact.

Herbs, supplements and to some extent, even food interact with each other and with drugs. You need to understand what those interactions and side effects could be. A personal example…

Under the supervision of my cardiologist, I take a prescription anticoagulant (Plavix) along with one full-strength aspirin per day to minimize the possibility of a clot causing another heart attack or a stroke. In researching how I could improve my health, I decided I needed to increase my intake of vitamin C and E. I also was advised by my cardiologist to start taking pharmaceutical-grade fish oil.

In researching the interactions of those vitamins and supplements I found that each is also a “blood thinner.” I found that while taking all of them, I bruised VERY easily. Even the slightest bump would cause a large bruise.

My cardiologist did not indicate that there would be any problem with the supplements I was taking.

I decided to drop the vitamins C and E other than what was in my multivitamin. Fish oil also is a “blood thinner.” So I backed off on the amount of fish oil I take. The bruising seemed to get better.

Maybe I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, but I don’t want to thin my blood to the point that I’m in danger of a hemorrhagic stroke.

Chocolate, besides being a vasodilator, is also a blood thinner. I eat dark chocolate (70% cacao) with blueberries and açai berries on a daily basis for several reasons (the subject of a blog for another day). Again, I had to do some research to learn the known interactions and side effects of everything I take.

Once again, each of us is ultimately responsible for our own health and needs to inform our health care providers
of all supplements we are taking along with the prescription drugs, but also we need to do our own research.

Here are a couple of sites that I’ve found useful for researching interactions and side effects.

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Interaction/ChooseDrugs/1,4109,,00.html
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/index.html (layperson’s version of Physician’s Desk Reference)

Pills or Food?

jbchristensen — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:42:23 +0000

My personal feeling has been that eating a food, as close to nature as possible, is better than taking a pill of concentrated essence of whatever. The article below lends credence to that view.

CTV.ca | Antioxidant pills don’t prevent heart disease

The study, done at Brigham & Women’s hospital, followed 8,171 women with three or more risk factors for CVD for over 9 years. Over the course of the study, the women were given either:

500 mg vitamin C or a placebo every day
600 IU vitamin E or a placebo every other day
50 mg beta carotene or a placebo every other day

The researchers found that “There were no overall effects of ascorbic acid,vitamin E, or beta carotene on cardiovascular events among womenat high risk for CVD.”

Here’s a link to the abstract of the study.

We’ve seen many studies that show antioxidants have health benefits. However, many of those studies were done in vitro, rather than in vivo. It seems that people are more complex than test tubes!

Many of the clinical trials involving cacao or dark chocolate show health benefits. My own personal experience, while anecdotal, bears out many of the findings. I still plan on posting my experience and results, but not today. One of the reasons I like minimally processed dark chocolate as a “supplement” is that it is a food, rather than a pill that someone has made by attempting to pull out the “good stuff” in the cacao (flavonoids in this case).

Here’s another article that addresses pills v. foods:

The antioxidant myth: a medical fairy tale – health – 05 August 2006 – New Scientist

Chocolate and Prevention of CVD

jbchristensen — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:00:37 +0000

Nutrition & Metabolism | Full text | Chocolate and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review

I came across the study above a while ago, but am just getting around to mentioning it in this blog. This study is not primary research, but rather a review of all MEDLINE publications from 1966 through January 2005 looking for “relations between cocoa, cacao, chocolate, stearic acid, flavonoids (including flavonols, catechins, epicatechins, and procynadins) and the risk of cardiovascular disease.”

One of the things they looked at was whether or not the stearic acid content was detrimental to cardiovascular health. Stearic acid is the type of saturated fat found in cacao. The evidence suggests that it is neutral, unlike other saturated fats, which raise total cholesterol levels.

To quote the results of the study:

The body of short-term randomized feeding trials suggests cocoa and chocolate may exert beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk via effects on lowering blood pressure, anti-inflammation, anti-platelet function, higher HDL, decreased LDL oxidation. Additionally, a large body of trials of stearic acid suggests it is indeed cholesterol-neutral. However, epidemiologic studies of serum and dietary stearic acid are inconclusive due to many methodologic limitations. Meanwhile, the large body of prospective studies of flavonoids suggests the flavonoid content of chocolate may reduce risk of cardiovascular mortality. Our updated meta-analysis indicates that intake of flavonoids may lower risk of CHD mortality, RR = 0.81 (95% CI: 0.71–0.92) comparing highest and lowest tertiles.

It’s a good article. Got a lot of big words, but they do a good job of explaining and referencing the research.

I think I’ll go have some healthy dark chocolate.

Chocolate Sunscreen?

jbchristensen — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:16:28 +0000

Sounds kinda gross. And wow, would the sand ever stick to you at the beach! Not really:-) This article says the preliminary results of a German study show that eating chocolate rich in cocoa solids and flavonoids (in other words, dark chocolate) can fight skin cancer. Subjects were given cocoa to drink. Half the group got cocoa high in flavonoids, the other half got cocoa that tasted the same, but was much lower in the flavonoids.

All subjects were then exposed to UV light. The subjects that received the cocoa high in flavonoids did not redden as much as the other group and their skin was smoother and moister.

Here’s a link to the article:

Food for Thought: Chocolate as Sunscreen, Science News Online, June 10, 2006

Cocoa More Important than Penicillin?

jbchristensen — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:05:51 +0000

Norman Hollenberg, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School says that epicatechin, one of the flavonoids in cacao, has such powerful health benefits, it “may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health.” He thinks it is so important it should be considered a vitamin.

He has spent years studying the Kuna people in Panama, who drink large amounts of cocoa. He found that four of the five most common killer diseases in the industrialized world are significantly reduced. He attributes that reduction to the high levels of epicatechin in cocoa.

As usual, a link to the article is found below.

ScienceDaily: Cocoa ‘Vitamin’ Health Benefits Could Outshine Penicillin

Seven Steps to Fight Inflammation

jbchristensen — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:47:25 +0000

I subscribe to a newsletter from Harvard Medical School. The most recent issue reminds us that inflammation, while an important part of our body’s healing system, can be dangerous, if there is too much of it. Inflammation is involved in atherosclerosis, heart disease, strokes and even some types of dementia. Below is a link to the on-line version of the article.

Harvard Medical School: 7 simple steps to fend off harmful inflammation

The article lists seven dietary steps that will help fight inflammation. Quoting from the article -

Simple changes

What you eat may fan the fires of inflammation. With some small changes — no crazy new foods involved — you can douse them. Here are some suggestions:

Get an oil change. Eating a lot of saturated fats and/or trans fats is linked with higher levels of inflammation. Swap them for olive oil, which has potent anti-inflammatory properties, or polyunsaturated fats, especially omega-3 fats from fish.

Don’t be so refined. The bolus of blood sugar that accompanies a meal or snack of highly refined carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, French fries, sugar-laden soda, etc.) increases levels of inflammatory messengers called cytokines. Eating whole-grain bread, brown rice, and other whole grains smooths out the after-meal rise in blood sugar and insulin, and dampens cytokine production.

Promote produce. The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the lower the burden of inflammation. Why? They contain hundreds, perhaps thousands, of substances that squelch inflammation-rousing free radicals; some act as direct anti-inflammatory agents.

Go nuts. Adding walnuts, peanuts, almonds, and other nuts and seeds to your snacks and meals is another tasty way to ease inflammation.

Cocoa lovers rejoice? In laboratory studies, cocoa and dark chocolate slow the production of signaling molecules involved in inflammation. The trick is to get them without too much sugar and fat.

Alcohol in moderation. A drink a day seems to lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a powerful signal of inflammation. Too much alcohol has the opposite effect on CRP.

Spice it up. Herbs and spices such as turmeric, ginger, garlic, basil, pepper, and many others have anti-inflammatory properties.

If you adopt an anti-inflammatory diet, you probably won’t see or feel any different. Angina won’t suddenly disappear or heart failure reverse itself. But you will be doing your heart, arteries, and the rest of you a huge favor that will pay off in many ways.

If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletter, here’s a link to the subscription form:
www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat

Just a warning – each issue of the newsletter will hit you up to buy a report regarding the subject matter of the newsletter.

Cocoa and the Immune System

jbchristensen — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:38:22 +0000

The University of Barcelona reports that rats fed a cocoa-enriched diet had “significant increases in the total antioxidant capacity in all the body tissues, particularly in the thymus.” The article can be found at the link below.

Cocoa-rich diet may boost thymus antioxidant defences

A link to the abstract is here.

The amount of cocoa that was fed to the rats was pretty high. In one group, the cocoa was 4% of the total food intake, in another group it was 10%. However, I couldn’t find if that was by weight, calorie, volume or how the percentage was measured. The results showed a correlation between the cocoa intake and the antioxidant increase in the thymus.

The thymus produces hormones used in our immune system. Of course, additional studies are necessary to see if the same effects apply to humans…

So what is the optimal intake of antioxidants for humans? Are there different kinds of antioxidants? Does it matter what kind we eat or how we get them? Wow, lots of fodder for future blogs or comments from readers. Feel free to point out some good sources of information or to leave your comments.

Dark Chocolate May be as Good for Blood Pressure as Reducing Sodium Intake

jbchristensen — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:59:45 +0000

Here’s an article about a German study that found that dark chocolate may have a small benefit on blood pressure.

Dark Chocolate a Comfort to Early Blood Pressure – Breaking Medical News + CME Teaching Brief® – MedPage Today

I imagine the dark chocolate that was used was still alkalized and processed. Wouldn’t it be great to find a dark chocolate that wasn’t so highly processed, thus preserving more of the flavanols and other antioxidants that provide these health benefits?

Fight Fat with Fat? Nutty!

jbchristensen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:18:11 +0000

Who woulda thunk that you could offset the effects of a meal high in saturated fat by eating another food high in fat–walnuts.

Eating a meal high in saturated fat causes our veins and arteries to narrow, stiffen and the lining to become sticky. This article from RealAge tells us a few things we can do to mitigate the consequences of a high saturated fat meal. Here’s a link to the article:

Not Your Average Nut – RealAge Tip of the Day

Many nutritionists and researchers say replacing some of the fat in our diet with a few nuts will give us an important boost of flavonoids and antioxidants. They say to replace, rather than add, because fat is the most calorie dense of the three main food components (protein, carbohydrates & fats).

The article also mentions the effect of chocolate (dark, of course) on blood vessels. I hope you have deduced that the effects are positive.