Chocolate Sauce

Apparently for the past 40 years heart disease has been in decline. However, earlier this month Reuters reported that the trend may be at an end. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of British Columbia examined the autopsy reports of residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota that died between 1981 and 2004 from unnatural [...]

Here’s a study from The Journal of the American Medical Association that shows that cocoa, or more specifically, the polyphenols in cocoa, has a positive effect on blood pressure. It points out several important facts:

It doesn’t need to be a huge quantity of dark chocolate to have an effect
The dark chocolate must be taken regularly
It [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I’m often asked about the different types of fats & how they interact with blood lipids. Here’s a very good summary of “The Facts on Fats.”
Discovery Health :: The Facts on Fats
In a nutshell:

trans-fat–really bad (lowers “good” cholesterol, raises “bad” cholesterol)
saturated fat–bad when overdone (raises total cholesterol)
mono & polyunsaturated–good in moderation (depending on the source, [...]

A recently completed four-week double-blind study on 160 subjects showed that consumption of cocoa powder reduced LDL and raised HDL. There have been quite a few studies that have shown the reduction of “bad” cholesterol and the increase of “good” cholesterol. Another interesting finding of the study was that oxidized LDL was reduced. Oxidized LDL [...]

According to a RealAge article here, “Scientists may one day claim you need the stuff to be at your healthiest.
It’s a theory growing from a study of the diets of a small Indian tribe
in the Panamanian islands. High blood pressure is virtually unheard of
within the group. And tribe members drink three or four 10-ounce
servings of [...]