Chocolate & Cocoa Effects for health?

Stories on the health benefits of consuming cocoa products have increasingly made the news following the discovery that they are an excellent source of catechins, which are polyphenols of the flavanol group, and which are believed to protect against heart disease, cancer, and various other medical conditions.

Chocolate manufacturers and retailers have been taking advantage of these findings by not only trying to make chocolate lovers feel less guilty about their addiction, but also by trying to target the more health-conscious consumer with regular doses of "research studies" praising the supposed benefits of
consuming chocolate, among them that:

• eating chocolate releases endorphins in the brain, which act as pain-relievers,
• eating chocolate boosts one's appetite, but does not cause weight gain,
• the sugar in chocolate may reduce stress and have a calming and pain relieving effect,
• eating chocolate does not give someone acne or other skin eruptions,
• eating chocolate does not trigger migraine headaches,
• eating moderate amounts of chocolate makes one live almost a year longer,
• eating chocolate reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer.

How reliable are all this?
Taking a closer look, one discovers that once the studies funded by chocolate interest groups were
discarded, the ones left offered conflicting results. As expected however, some isolated compounds in cocoa did show certain health benefits. Because it is a common practice in nutritional research to do studies on food fractions, outcomes may sometimes appear negative because they are done without any co-factors or complexed nutrients, however in the case of cocoa, some of the research was positive because the "co-factors" (all the other detrimental ingredients in chocolate) were not part of the study.

If people were to consume pure cocoa, then they might indeed be able to enjoy a few health benefits, including a positive effect on blood pressure and glucose metabolism, however the majority of people eat processed chocolate with all the other less desirable ingredients (i.e. added sugar, corn syrup, milk fats / dairy cream, hydrogenated oils, etc...), and where the actual cocoa content may be less than 20%, so all the bets regarding chocolate being a healthy food are off.

With claims made of sugar having a "pain-relieving" effect (babies fed a sucrose solution felt less pain from needles), it is doubtful that we will see chocolate bars replacing conventional analgesics any time soon, nor are these same "researchers" making these sugar-promoting claims likely going to reach for a chocolate bar next time they suffer from a throbbing toothache, a pounding headache, or a kidney stone attack. While cocoa and sugar do not "cause" acne, the sugar present in chocolate will most certainly make acne, or any other acne-like skin eruptions worse, as anyone suffering from these skin conditions can attest to.
Placebo-controlled trials showed that some of the chemicals in chocolate (caffeine, phenylethylamine, or theobromine) can indeed trigger migraine headaches by altering cerebral blood flow and releasing norepinephrine in some of those prone to suffer from migraines. Of all the foods isolated that triggered the most attacks, chocolate was an offender about 30% of the time. Claiming that "eating moderate amounts of chocolate increases one's life span" is a most interesting example of how some "researchers" will manipulate statistics to prove anything!

"Chocolate-Is-Good-For-You" campaigns through the media or the prominent placement of leaflets
at confectionery counters keep feeding the consumer "made-to-order" research results whose outcome is predetermined to satisfy an agenda (i.e. selling chocolate), with little relevance to science or facts. Considering that nicotine has also shown some health benefits, particularly with ulcerative colitis and Parkinson's disease --- would this be a reason to urge people to start smoking tobacco?

From a nutritional perspective - chocolate is no less a junk food than ice cream or donuts, and it is equally unhealthy and fattening when larger amounts are consumed on a regular basis. While no one is trying to discourage people from enjoying an occasional chocolate treat - urging consumers to increase their chocolate intake for "Health Reasons" leaves nutritional research less than credible, particularly when diabetes and obesity have become an out-of-control global problem.

Premium grade dark chocolate contains only cocoa butter, a fat that naturally occurs in cocoa beans and is made up of stearic acid (34%), oleic acid (34%), palmitic acid (25%), and the rest of other fatty
acids, whereby the combined effect of all the fats found in cocoa butter is fairly neutral in regard to an individual's lipid profile. However, when milk chocolate or lower grade chocolate is consumed, part of the total fat content of chocolate comes from milk fat or various other types of fat, which do adversely affect cholesterol levels.
Despite all the good news on cocoa not raising LDL cholesterol, even dark chocolate is a very calorie- dense food, so while the fat content may not invite cardiovascular disease from an atherogenic (arterial clogging) perspective, its regular consumption will add a lot of extra calories to someone's daily total, and as a result still affect those who have to watch their caloric intake. Nevertheless, being listed as the
No.1 ingredient in many chocolate products, sugar is unquestionably a worse culprit compared to the fat content when addressing the effects of chocolate on someone's overall health.

Sugar is a well-known cause, contributing, or aggravating factor with a host of medical conditions that includes heart disease, insulin and blood sugar disorders, mood disorders, immune system disorders, impaired phagocytosis, leukemia, inflammatory conditions, dental caries, yeast infections, depletion of essential nutrients, osteoporosis, obesity, and others. (see also Acu-Cell "Sugar & Glycemic Index").

Cocoa products also contain stimulants such as phenylethylamine, which have an anti-depressant and
amphetamine-like effect; they contain pharmacological substances such as n-acetylethanolamines that are related to cannabis (marijuana), and they have compounds that stimulate the brain to release an opiate-like substance called anandamide. When drugs are used to block the brain's opiate receptors, the desire for chocolate (and other sweet and fatty foods) disappears - confirming the addictive nature of these types of foods.
But despite cocoa being such an opiate and endorphin-releasing pharmacological powerhouse, who
would have guessed that when chocoholics were given cocoa in capsules - without the added fat and
sugar, and without the feel of chocolate melting in their mouths - it had no satisfying effect at all! However, while eating the actual chocolate bar satisfied the cravings for it, studies showed that there was no improvement with mood, relaxation, feeling content, depression, or guilt, after eating chocolate.

Copyright © 2001-2008 Ronald Roth
http://www.acu-cell.com