LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

dark chocolate

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

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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…

 

Cocoa and dark chocolate on LDL oxidative susceptibility – (11-08-01)

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Cocoa and dark chocolate on LDL oxidative susceptibility

Great news for chocalate lovers!! It does appear that the polyphenols in chocolate do have some protective effects. However, this article does not take into effect the affect of stearic acid in the chocolate that are believed to have adverse effects of lipids.

AJCN — Abstracts: Wan et al. 74 (5): 596

Read entire article here

Chocolate Research: Eat Healthy Chocolate for Your Brain

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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?

  1. Nuts are fattening.
  2. Diet soda will help me from gaining weight.
  3. Milk does a body good.
  4. 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.

  1. Overall, high chocolate consumption was associated with a lower risk of stroke.
  2. The highest group of chocolate consumers averaged 62.9 g/week (just under a good sized bar).
  3. 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?

Drink Red Wine, Improve Heart Disease in a Surprising Way

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Most of us have an inkling that red wine is good for heart disease.  Maybe even for the brain.  But what does red wine really do for us?

First of all, no discussion on the benefits of red wine on heart disease would be appropriate until we discuss volume.  Moderate wine drinking in the medical literature is considered a 1/2 bottle per day.  Most are very happy to hear this (and no–this “average” does not likely include nothing on Mon-Wed and a full bottle the rest of the week to make up for the shortfall).

The medical research has documented multiple health benefits of red wine.  These may include:

Basically, the polyphenol resveratrol found in red wine (also found in the grapes and peanut skins) is believed to act on a family of genes called the Sirtuin family of genes.  These genes are responsible for longevity and good health, so anything that positively affects these genes is a good thing.  Calorie restriction without nutrient restriction has the same effect.

This particular study gives us some additional insight into some less well known benefits.

Having a healthy bacterial flora in our gut is absolutely essential for good health.  Those that state that death begins in the colon may not be too far off.

Researchers found that red wine actually improved the number of Bifidobacteria in the gut of the participants in this study.  Additional benefits noted include:

  • Blood pressure decreased
  • Triglyceride and total cholesterol levels decreased
  • HDL cholesterol levels increased
  • C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation) decreased

Interestingly, changes in cholesterol and C-reactive protein concentrations were linked to changes in the number of bifidobacteria in the gut.  This just goes to show how complex our bodies are in how each system interacts with every other system.  Lifestyle changes are not geared towards improving a single target (like blood pressure or cholesterol), but rather gear towards improving every parameter as it relates to health.

As if this wasn’t good enough news, keep in mind that adding a square of dark chocolate with your evening wine may go even further towards protecting your heart and your health…

What do you eat with your red wine?