Antioxidants in Chocolate - Myths and FactsScientific Research Reveals New Insights About Antioxidants in Chocolate!
It’s too good to be true: Chocolate, once the bane of dental health and shamefully used to bribe children and tempt sweethearts everywhere is actually healthy! Read on to learn about information published by scientists in Spain and Holland, by physicians in the British medical journal, Lancet, and by researchers at Cornell University in New York. Antioxidants in Chocolate - Background InformationAll chocolates come to us from the beans of the cacao plant. Variations in processing methods result in different types of chocolate, and studies have analyzed the antioxidant content in an assortment of types. The cacao beans are fermented, roasted, hulled, and pulverized, resulting in a basic product that will become either cocoa butter or cocoa solids. Cocoa beverages have more health benefits than chocolate bars, because the chocolate bars come from cocoa butter, which has a higher fat content. Milk chocolate has a smaller content of pure cocoa in it, so it is not as healthy as dark chocolate. Antioxidants in Chocolate - Scientific ResearchResearchers compared the amounts of antioxidants in a mug of cocoa, a cup of green tea, and a glass of red wine. They looked at overall phenolic compounds, which are measured in gallic acid equivalents (GAE). They also considered flavonoid content, measured in epicatechin equivalents (ECE). Flavonoids, of course, are a category of polyphenols, or compounds with multiple phenols.
Many researchers expressed surprise that cocoa would surpass green tea in a contest to compare health benefits. Why do you think cocoa wins? Take a look for a minute at the second-place winner, the red wine. Wine comes from grapes, which have the highest concentration of antioxidants in their seeds and skins. 
The same is true of cocoa. Although we think of it as a melting sweet treat, it comes from
the cacao bean.
Again, remember that it’s the seed. That’s why we find that the purer the form of cocoa, the more cocoa solids it has, and the more antioxidants it has. Tea, placing third, comes from the leaf of the plant, which is used much more sparingly in the brewing process. Additional research has been conducted on phenol categories generally. Results indicate that phenols demonstrate positive results in the removal of fatlike substances that might be present within blood vessels. Phenols actually prevent these substances from binding with oxygen molecules and forming compounds that will obstruct your arteries. In addition, the procyanidins in cocoa products — another antioxidant in the catechin family of polyphenols — protect the linings of our arteries and veins, which make them better able to resist clogs and clots. Antioxidants in Chocolate - Dental HealthHow do we convince the dentists in the crowd that it’s okay to eat chocolate? Your dental health has been predicated upon the removal of sugar from your diet or, at the very least, its removal from your teeth by brushing after every meal and snack. However, the Holland researchers specifically studied the action of the cocoa butter we find in chocolate. It appears to put a protective coating on your teeth, and this coating can stand in the way of plaque formation that would otherwise harm them. This comes from the hulls of the cacao bean and is bacteria-resistant. Regardless of this theory, it is true that the sugar in cocoa is no more harmful than the sugar in any other food product. Antioxidants in Chocolate - Other Health BenefitsBesides the anticholesterolemic effects of chocolate, it offers other health benefits to consider while you enjoy it. One study of the Kuna people native to Panama revealed that four of our top killer diseases—cancer, diabetes, heart failure, and stroke—each cause less than 10% of the deaths among this population. The people studied drink between 5 and 6 cups of cocoa a day. Other research suggests that drinking cocoa can possibly augment your cognitive abilities. Subjects who ingested cocoa prior to visual and verbal evaluations of memory scored better than those who went without. There was also a correlation between chocolate ingestion and impulse control, although this is still under investigation. With cocoa being the healthiest way to ingest chocolate, how do chocolate bars stack up? Dark chocolate is healthier than milk chocolate. White chocolate has comparatively few of the cocoa solids in its composition, and so it is the least beneficial. Antioxidants in Chocolate - Conclusions
Antioxidants aside, the pleasurable experience of eating chocolate causes the brain to release endorphins into your systems, so it relieves your daily stresses in a natural way. What can be better for your daily routine than eliminating a slice of bread or a can of soft drink or soda (which you're better off eliminating from your diet completely anyway) and replacing it with a piece of delicious, healthy chocolate?
|
