The emerging role of cocoa solids in disease prevention.
Cocoa Good; Chocolate Bad
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If you really want to combine nuts with something other than meat, how about chocolate? The emerging role of cocoa in the prevention of disease. When I first saw this, I was sure it said “habitual cocaine intake!” But no, “habitual cocoa intake.” Eat cocoa, and lower your blood pressure. Cocoa comes from the cacao bean, and like other beans, has wonderful health-promoting flavanol phytonutrients, like in green tea. Eat cocoa.
Notice I didn’t say eat chocolate. I said, eat cocoa. Now of course, milk chocolate is completely out of the question because the milk, like in the tea, blocks the positive effects. But even dairy-free dark chocolate is made out of things we don’t want: the fat and the sugar. The fat is saturated cocoa butter, and is one of the few plant fats that’s actually bad for us; it raises our cholesterol. Sugar isn’t good for us either.
So how do you get the benefits of the cacao bean without the bad stuff? In the form of cocoa powder. Cocoa powder has no sugar or fat, and it’s just packed with phytonutrients that lower our blood pressure, lower bad cholesterol, and boost our good cholesterol.
But isn’t exercise the only way to boost our good cholesterol? Exercise, it seems, and cocoa. A new drug by Pfizer, Torcetrapib, also boosted one’s good cholesterol. Most drugs only lower the bad. The CEO held a press conference calling it one of the most important drugs of our generation. Two days later, the actual clinical data were released, and the drug was immediately pulled off the market, thrown in the trash, along with the billion dollars in R&D it took to make it. Torcetrapib worked. It does raise your good cholesterol, but it turns out it also raises your chance of dying by about 60%. But on autopsy, I bet your cholesterol’s pretty good. I guess we should just stick with a healthy diet.
Cocoa also unstiffens our arteries, powerfully boosts our immune system—yes, though it was funded by the M&M company—and may even combat the effects of aging. This is all just within 12 months. Cocoa beans and aging. An unexpected but welcome friendship.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- M. B. Engler and M. M. Engler. The emerging role of flavonoid-rich cocoa and chocolate in cardiovascular health and disease. Nutrition reviews, 64(3):109-118, 2006.
- D. Taubert, N. Jung, and R. Roesen. Cocoa intake and blood pressure reply. JAMA, 298(16):1863, 2007.
- S. Baba, M. Natsume, A. Yasuda, Y. Nakamura, T. Tamura, N. Osakabe, M. Kanegae, and K. Kondo. Plasma ldl and hdl cholesterol and oxidized ldl concentrations are altered in normo-and hypercholesterolemic humans after intake of different levels of cocoa powder. Journal of Nutrition, 137(6) 1436, 2007.
- S. Baba, N. Osakabe, Y. Kato, M. Natsume, A. Yasuda, T. Kido, K. Fukuda, Y. Muto, and K. Kondo. Continuous intake of polyphenolic compounds containing cocoa powder reduces ldl oxidative susceptibility and has beneficial effects on plasma hdl-cholesterol concentrations in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(3):709, 2007.
- C. Heiss, D. Finis, P. Kleinbongard, A. Hoffmann, T. Rassaf, M. Kelm, and H. Sies. Sustained increase in flow-mediated dilation after daily intake of high-flavanol cocoa drink over 1 week. J. Cardiovasc. Pharmacol., 49(2):74, 2007.
- T.P. Kenny, C.L. Keen, H.H. Schmitz and M.E. Gershwin. Immune effects of cocoa procyanidin oligomers on peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Exp Biol Med (Maywood), 232(2):293-300, 2007.
- N. D. L. Fisher and N. K. Hollenberg. Aging and vascular responses to flavanol-rich cocoa. J. Hypertens., 24(8):1575-1580, 2006.
- C. Ferri, D. Grassi, and G. Grassi. Cocoa beans, endothelial function and aging: An unexpected friendship? J. Hypertens., 24(8):1471-1474, 2006.
If you really want to combine nuts with something other than meat, how about chocolate? The emerging role of cocoa in the prevention of disease. When I first saw this, I was sure it said “habitual cocaine intake!” But no, “habitual cocoa intake.” Eat cocoa, and lower your blood pressure. Cocoa comes from the cacao bean, and like other beans, has wonderful health-promoting flavanol phytonutrients, like in green tea. Eat cocoa.
Notice I didn’t say eat chocolate. I said, eat cocoa. Now of course, milk chocolate is completely out of the question because the milk, like in the tea, blocks the positive effects. But even dairy-free dark chocolate is made out of things we don’t want: the fat and the sugar. The fat is saturated cocoa butter, and is one of the few plant fats that’s actually bad for us; it raises our cholesterol. Sugar isn’t good for us either.
So how do you get the benefits of the cacao bean without the bad stuff? In the form of cocoa powder. Cocoa powder has no sugar or fat, and it’s just packed with phytonutrients that lower our blood pressure, lower bad cholesterol, and boost our good cholesterol.
But isn’t exercise the only way to boost our good cholesterol? Exercise, it seems, and cocoa. A new drug by Pfizer, Torcetrapib, also boosted one’s good cholesterol. Most drugs only lower the bad. The CEO held a press conference calling it one of the most important drugs of our generation. Two days later, the actual clinical data were released, and the drug was immediately pulled off the market, thrown in the trash, along with the billion dollars in R&D it took to make it. Torcetrapib worked. It does raise your good cholesterol, but it turns out it also raises your chance of dying by about 60%. But on autopsy, I bet your cholesterol’s pretty good. I guess we should just stick with a healthy diet.
Cocoa also unstiffens our arteries, powerfully boosts our immune system—yes, though it was funded by the M&M company—and may even combat the effects of aging. This is all just within 12 months. Cocoa beans and aging. An unexpected but welcome friendship.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- M. B. Engler and M. M. Engler. The emerging role of flavonoid-rich cocoa and chocolate in cardiovascular health and disease. Nutrition reviews, 64(3):109-118, 2006.
- D. Taubert, N. Jung, and R. Roesen. Cocoa intake and blood pressure reply. JAMA, 298(16):1863, 2007.
- S. Baba, M. Natsume, A. Yasuda, Y. Nakamura, T. Tamura, N. Osakabe, M. Kanegae, and K. Kondo. Plasma ldl and hdl cholesterol and oxidized ldl concentrations are altered in normo-and hypercholesterolemic humans after intake of different levels of cocoa powder. Journal of Nutrition, 137(6) 1436, 2007.
- S. Baba, N. Osakabe, Y. Kato, M. Natsume, A. Yasuda, T. Kido, K. Fukuda, Y. Muto, and K. Kondo. Continuous intake of polyphenolic compounds containing cocoa powder reduces ldl oxidative susceptibility and has beneficial effects on plasma hdl-cholesterol concentrations in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(3):709, 2007.
- C. Heiss, D. Finis, P. Kleinbongard, A. Hoffmann, T. Rassaf, M. Kelm, and H. Sies. Sustained increase in flow-mediated dilation after daily intake of high-flavanol cocoa drink over 1 week. J. Cardiovasc. Pharmacol., 49(2):74, 2007.
- T.P. Kenny, C.L. Keen, H.H. Schmitz and M.E. Gershwin. Immune effects of cocoa procyanidin oligomers on peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Exp Biol Med (Maywood), 232(2):293-300, 2007.
- N. D. L. Fisher and N. K. Hollenberg. Aging and vascular responses to flavanol-rich cocoa. J. Hypertens., 24(8):1575-1580, 2006.
- C. Ferri, D. Grassi, and G. Grassi. Cocoa beans, endothelial function and aging: An unexpected friendship? J. Hypertens., 24(8):1471-1474, 2006.
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Title
Cocoa Good; Chocolate Bad
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
A few of the latest videos on the many health benefits of different flavonoids:
- Dark Chocolate and Artery Function
- A Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Fat Burning Via Flavonoids
- Anti-Angiogenesis: Cutting Off Tumor Supply Lines
- Cancer, Interrupted: Garlic & Flavonoids
More on HDL Cholesterol:
And check out the other videos on cocoa.
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk, Breast Cancer Stem Cells vs. Broccoli, Soymilk: shake it up!
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