Showing posts with label Flavanols. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flavanols. Show all posts

Feb 13, 2015

Benefits of Dark Chocolate

It is fitting with the holiday tomorrow that we look at some of the positive benefits of dark chocolate. It takes only two to three ounces of dark chocolate per week to achieve these benefits.

Dark chocolate is in the top 10 dietary sources of antioxidants, along with seasonings like cloves, mint, anise, cacao powder, black chokeberry, and black elderberry, according to the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Dark chocolate is also rich in bioactive flavanols and theobromine. These have good effects on the cells of our hearts and blood vessels.

The Journal of the American Heart Association research showed that eating dark chocolate helped people who have peripheral artery disease walk farther and longer.

Eating dark chocolate is linked to significantly lower blood pressure.  Systolic blood pressure (top number) for people who ate dark chocolate went down by three points. Diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure went down by two points.

Researchers followed a group of more than 37,000 men for 10 years and counted instances of stroke. The numbers showed that those who ate about 63 grams (2 oz.) of chocolate per week had a lower risk of stroke, compared with those who ate no chocolate. Five additional studies also showed lower stroke risk, on average by about 20 percent for chocolate eaters.

Those who had the dark chocolate saw an average drop of 12 percent in their LDL cholesterol, known as bad cholesterol, which is linked to higher risks of heart disease.

A June 2014 study found that eating dark chocolate helped people better cope with stress.

I could go on about the super benefits of dark chocolate covered bacon, but will save that for another day.

Mar 1, 2013

Rosemary for Memory

Scientists have found that aromas can profoundly affect people's cognitive abilities. In a 2003 study, psychologists asked 144 volunteers to perform a series of long-term memory, working memory, and attention and reaction tests. Some subjects worked in a scent-free cubicle, some in a cubicle infused with essential oil from rosemary, and the rest worked in cubicles scented with lavender oil.

Those in the rosemary-infused cubicles demonstrated significantly better long-term and working memory than those in the unscented cubicles. Also, those exposed to the smell of rosemary reported feeling more alert than the control (scent-free) group.

Participants working in the lavender cubicles reported feeling less alert and those in the lavender-scented cubicles performed worse than the others in tests of working memory.

If you need your brain to perform at its best, you can try placing a rosemary plant on your windowsill. Research also shows that eating chocolate may improve memory and cognition, because it is rich in antioxidants called flavanols.

Apr 16, 2010

Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure

Research that shows just one small square of chocolate a day can lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease. The study is published online in the European Heart Journal.

Researchers in Germany followed 19,357 people, aged between 35 and 65, for at least ten years and found that those who ate an average of 7.5 grams (about .25oz) a day, had lower blood pressure and a 39% lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who ate the least amount of chocolate, an average of 1.7 grams a day. The difference between the two groups amounts to six grams of chocolate: the equivalent of less than one small square of a 3.5 ounce bar.

The people in the study were participants in the Potsdam arm of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC). They received medical checks, including blood pressure, height and weight measurements at the start of the study between 1994-1998, and they also answered questions about their diet, lifestyle and health. The researchers asked a sub-set of 1,568 participants to recall their chocolate intake over a 24-hour period and to indicate which type of chocolate they ate. In this sub-set, 57% ate milk chocolate, 24% dark chocolate and 2% white chocolate.

In follow-up questionnaires, sent out every two or three years until December 2006, the study participants were asked whether they had had a heart attack or stroke, information which was subsequently verified by medical records from general physicians or hospitals. Death certificates from those who had died were also used to identify heart attacks and strokes.

People in the top quartile had a 27% reduced risk of heart attacks and nearly half the risk (48%) of strokes, compared with those in the lowest quartile.

The researchers believe that flavanols in cocoa may be the reason why chocolate seems to be good for people's blood pressure and heart health; and since there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, dark chocolate may have a greater effect. In fact, dark chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 70%, reduces oxidative stress and improves vascular and platelet function. We may have a new cliche - a truffle a day keeps the blood pressure at bay.