chocolate

Ancient Mayan Treat Wins Again for Diabetes Prevention

February 14, 2015 by James Bogash

chocolate and diabetes risk — hiphoto39/Dollar Photo Club

While the idea that chocolate is good for us seems to have made it to the general public, there are still some patients I come across who are not aware.

The history of chocolate goes back some ways, but the origins are usually pinned to the Olmecs and Matans in Mexico. Cacao. Food of the Gods. Theobroma cacao. This was the beginning of learning how to process cacao into cocoa and chocolate. (Just in case you’re really interested in learning about the entire history and industry, Cornell University has an excellent overview that can be found by clicking here)

For years, I thought someone had just been spelling cocoa wrong when I saw cacao written. Not so. Cocoa is made from cacao seeds. Cacao itself is a very heavy-hitter when it comes to good health. Specifically good blood vessel health. And if you have healthy blood vessels, you are at a much lower risk of heart attack, stroke and dementia. That’s most likely why we see the benefits of cacao products on these conditions.

But, in the back of everyone’s mind is the concern that chocolate has calories and too many calories are going to lead to obesity and diabetes.

Let me clarify something first. When I talk about “chocolate” I’m not talking about the low-quality-hardly-deserves-the-label-of-chocolate chocolate found in things like Hershey’s chocolate, Ovaltine and Reese’s peanut butter cups. Nope. I’m talking about the higher cacao content chocolates made by companies like Endangered Species, Green and Black, Ghirardelli and Godiva. And stay away from cacao processed with alkali, as this will lower the level of protective compounds in the end product.

A study evaluating chocolate intake in European teens found that higher chocolate consumption led to lower body weight and body fat. Definitely good news.

Another study that relates to weight gain is the chocolate and the risk of developing diabetes. This study originally published in 2014 (online–print version in 2015) began to demonstrate that those with higher chocolate intakes had lower risk of developing diabetes. Again, good news.

Fast forward to this particular study, in which researchers combed through the data of the Physician’s Health Study, looking at the relationship between 18,235 male doctors’ chocolate intake and overall risk of developing diabetes. Here’s what they found after following this group for an average of 9.2 years:

Those who had chocolate 2 or more servings per week had a 17% lower risk of developing diabetes.
This protection from chocolate consumption was slightly stronger in those men who did not have heart disease.
The protection was mainly present in younger men and those with a more ideal body weight.

While a 17% lower risk of developing diabetes is not earth-shattering, the fact that eating the “food of the gods” a few times per week was all it took to achieve this lower risk is hard to argue. Add in some short-burst aerobic exercise and raw nuts and cut out refined carbohydrates and you’re going to have to be a Pima Indian just to have a risk for diabetes.

Is Dark Chocolate Good for You? What About Weight Gain?

November 7, 2013 by James Bogash

Chocolate. Even the word brings happy thoughts. But society has attached some incorrect negative connotations to the word and has strayed away from the idea that dark chocolate is good for you.

First of all, let’s clarify that we are talking about DARK chocolate here, not the dreaded milk chocoate that contains dairy and no cacao. Cacao is the bean that we use to make dark chocolate and cocoa and the research on how protective this bean is to our health is strong.

In general, the higher the cacao content, the more bitter the product but the stronger the health benefits to your heart and brain. Straight up cacao (which I use in my mochas at the office) has a definite bitter taste. When we buy chocolate bars, we make sure they’re high cacao content sweetened with pomegrante, boysenberry or blueberries, which balances out the bitterness.

Back to the largest concern that most people have with chocolate consumption: it’s going to lead to weight gain. I just heard this concern from a participant at a class I was teaching this week on prediabetes and dementia. Luckily, I had just flagged this particular article to answer this concern effectively.

Researchers looked at the relationship between chocolate consumption and weight gain in 1458 European teens. Overall, those who had higher chocolate consumption had lower body weight and abdominal obesity. Pretty cool news.

“Higher consumption” is a little vague. Personally, I have no issues with a square or two of dark chocolate per day, a teaspoon of powdered cacao in my mocha or some dark chocolate with mixed raw nuts as a snack on a daily basis.

I had written an article on the potential benefits of dark chocolate over drugs to lower cholesterol in those with high cholesterol levels that can be read by clicking here. In the study referenced, the authors were suggesting some 100 grams of dark chocolate daily. For those of you not familiar with how heavy the typical bar of chocolate is, it’s under 100 grams. Again, pretty cool…

What Are You Snacking on? Make Better Brain Choices

September 27, 2013 by James Bogash

When the idea of snacks are brought up, the scary choices like Doritos, chips and nachos come to mind. But what do you think these do to your brain?

Becomes vaguely reminiscent of the “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” commercials. The unhealthy fats in most snacks (high in omega 6 from corn, soybean and cottonseed oils) have been linked to lower IQs and overall brain function. Personally, I would prefer eating snacks that support brain health rather than destroy it.

Enter the beloved cacao bean. Believed to have originally been grown in the shadow of the Andes mountains, the cacao bean is most commonly used to make chocolate and cocoa; two food items that are rarely thrown across the room by disgruntled toddlers. Here’s the best part—the research consistently and strongly shows that cacao based compounds are really protective to your blood vessels. Protect your blood vessels and you protect your brain and heart. If these benefits came from gnawing on bark and grass from an untainted field, I could understand some reluctance. But it’s chocolate.

This particular study yet again demonstrates to benefits of cacao compounds on the brain. Researchers looked at neurovascular coupling, a term referring to the changes in blood flow that occur with activation of certain areas of the brain.

60 participants at an average age of 72.9 years were given cocoa and followed for one month. They were evaluated for both neurovascular coupling and cognitive function measured via the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Trail Making Test A and B (A targets are all numbers and the test taker needs to connect them in sequential order, and B alternates between numbers and letters). The test were evaluated at the 24 hour mark and the one month mark. When possible, MRIs were also used to look at the white matter of the brain. Here’s what they found:

In those participants who had impaired neurovascular coupling at the beginning of the trial, results improved (from -2.4% up to 5.6%).
Times to complete Trail B improved 44% as well (from 116 to 167 seconds).
Under MRI, the white matter of the brain demonstrate better structural integrity.

While some of the results may seem a little confusing, let me sum it up for you:

You need to take more cocoa, dark chocolate and straight up cacao. Pretty simple.

Chocolate Research: Eat Healthy Chocolate for Your Brain

October 25, 2012 by James Bogash

Many have the mistaken idea that living a healthy lifestyle is painfully boring. These same people are likely not aware of the volume of chocolate research…

I had a discussion with a new patient recently who said she liked sweets too much to be healthy. I asked how she would feel about a regular routine of dark chocolate mixed with sweeter fruits like cranberries, blueberries or strawberries. Didn’t sound too bad to her.

Like many other people, we have an altered perception of what is good and bad for us. Do any of these misconceptions sound familiar?

Nuts are fattening.
Diet soda will help me from gaining weight.
Milk does a body good.
I need to exercise 45 minutes 3 times per week.

Of course there are many more, but these were the first few that popped into my head.

Dark chocolate has been shown time and time again to be very good for us, along with its cousin, cocoa. Both are derived from the cacao plant and so have similar positive effects on health. Most of their power seems to be focused around protecting our blood vessels (aka vascular health). Lest you think vascular health doesn’t have the pizazz of heart disease and stroke, remember that almost ALL heart attacks and strokes begin with a problem in the blood vessels. Protect the blood vessels and you protect everything.

Especially the brain. Nothing destroys the brain more that poor vascular health. This is why conditions like prediabetes are so bad for the brain–the prediabetic state absolutely destroys the health of your blood vessels. Do this for too long and the cells of the brain begin to lose the vital blood flow they need to function optimally. These changes begin to show up as white matter changes.

Just in case you don’t think the chocolate research is really this strong as it relates to vascular health, this particular article looks at the risk of having a stroke as it relates to healthy chocolate.

Overall, high chocolate consumption was associated with a lower risk of stroke.
The highest group of chocolate consumers averaged 62.9 g/week (just under a good sized bar).
The highest group had a 19% lower risk of all types of stroke.

While 19% is not dramatic, make sure you take this into perspective. It’s chocolate.

One last comment, which I’m sure you’re already aware of. We’re not talking about the sugar-laden, dairy containing milk chocolate here. The protective compounds in milk chocolate are almost absent, while they remain very high in dark chocolate. The higher the cacao content, the better.

How do you like to eat your chocolate?

Heart Disease Prevention With Sweets Instead of Lipitor

July 31, 2012 by James Bogash

prevent heart disease cholesterol drug Heart disease remains the #1 killer. Prevention doesn’t take massive changes and does NOT require cholesterol lowering drugs like Lipitor or Crestor.

As a matter of fact, these drugs are likely to make your condition worse. The latest numbers suggest that medicine needs to treat 1,000 for 5 years to prevent a measley 11 heart attacks. For this society pays about $2400 / year per person in the US for Lipitor (yes, your copay may be less, but this is closer to the total costs). I cannot begin to describe how incredibly inefficient this method is.

This particular study provides an interesting alternative.

Chocolate has already shown to be quite protective for the heart. To review:

Clearly, these results relate to dark chocolate, NOT milk chocolate. The darker the better. For those of you who think dark chocolate is too bitter, consider finding chocolate with berries and / or nuts mixed in such as those made by Endangered Species. You should be able to find one that is perfect for you.

Back to this study…

Researchers did some number crunching on how many heart attacks could be prevented by consuming 100 grams of dark chocolate per day. First, 100 grams is a LOT of chocolate to consume in a day (ok…maybe not that hard to consume…). I usually recommend a few squares per day coupled with some walnuts, pecans or almonds.

The conclusion?

8.5 less heart attacks per 1,000 patients treated (1.5 of which were deaths prevented). Not too far off from the statins, and when you consider the estimated cost of $42 per year vs $2400, we begin to get a clearer answer. And, given the demonstrated protective effects of dark chocolate on second heart attacks, the benefits may be stronger over the long haul.

In addition, other than enjoyment and possibly choking on a chocolate bar, I’m not sure I’ve come across any studies on the side effects of dark chocolate consumption. And really…if your cardiologist looked you in the eye and said, “Now Ms. Jones, I’m going to need you to take your dark chocolate every day to protect your heart…” just how high would YOUR compliance be with dark chocolate vs medications?

So, settle in for some dark chocolate and a glass of red wine after dinner and know you’re protecting your heart in some powerful ways.

Please share in the comments how YOU prefer to eat your dark chocolate…

THREE CHEERS FOR THIS TREAT!

September 28, 2011 by James Bogash

Many times people are confused over what is good for us and what is bad. Many mistakenly believe that drinking bottled water and milk are good for you and that things like eggs and this wonderful food item are bad for you.

This particular study looked at over 114,000 participants across multiple studies to really answer the question about whether chocolate was good for us. I’ve seen a study where chocolate, in patients who have already had a heart attack, was more powerful at preventing a second heart attack than any medication available (66% reduction in heart deaths).

The authors determined that, at the highest intakes of chocolate there was a 37% reduction in the cases of heart disease and 29% reduction in stroke. This is pretty powerful for an “intervention” like chocolate. Compare this with statins, which have side effects and are massively expensive–can you imagine the wonderful chocolate you could get for $3 / day!

And, we have to consider that these studies did not focus entirely on dark chocolate. If they did, the protective effect was likely to be even higher. Combine your dark chocolate (the higher the cacao content the better) with some raw nuts and we’ll all have to take up smoking just to have any risk for a heart attack…