Living a Healthy Lifestyle

There is much information on chocolate – and sometimes it is hard to decipher the real truth of whether it is healthful or harmful.

I come from the perspective of my own personal experience. At age 21, I was filled with more than a dozen breast lumps. A biopsy and mammogram indicated that these were benign, yet the advice from my medical doctor was this. “Give up four things for life: coffee, tea, cola drinks & chocolate! These are all caffeine addictions, and since women are much more sensitive to caffeine and much more adversely affected by it, especially as in breast cancer, women should avoid these substances as much as possible.”

My only issue with any of these foods was chocolate. I took the doctor’s advice and completely eliminated it from my diet, and within 4-6 months my breast lumps all disappeared!

To this day, over 30 years later, except by accident, I have never eaten any of these fore-mentioned foods – and have never had the breast lumps return either. Is this a coincident? Or is it “scientific proof” that the medical doctor’s advice was true?

Evidence clearly shows that raw & dark chocolate (unprocessed) can have benefits and does contain antioxidants. Yet, if you look on the antioxidants lists, it has almost as much antioxidants to the positive, as it does stimulants to the negative! So can we really call it healthy and beneficial?

Again, my perspective and underlining feeling is that if a food has so much controversy in its balance of healthful or harmful, do we need to eat it at all? And if you look at foods as God’s creations, we understand that if it really does not provide the real health benefits, it must have medicinal qualities that need to be considered for medicinal use only – the same for all these fore-mentioned stimulant food and drinks (as you will see below). Here are some small bites of “chocolate” information for you to consider:

• Processed cocoa powder (so called Dutch chocolate), processed with alkali greatly reduces the antioxidant capacity as compared to “raw” cocoa powder. Chocolate is also a calorie-rich food with a high fat content, so daily intake of chocolate also requires reducing caloric intake of other foods.
• Two-thirds of the fat in chocolate comes in the forms of a saturated fat called stearic acid and a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid. However, unlike other saturated fats, stearic acid does not raise levels of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Consuming relatively large amounts of dark chocolate and cocoa does not seem to raise serum LDL cholesterol levels; some studies even find that it could lower them.
• Several population studies have observed an increase in the risk of certain cancers among people who frequently consume sweet ‘junk’ foods such as chocolate. However, very little evidence exists to suggest wheth er consuming flavonoid-rich dark chocolate may increase or decrease the risk of cancer. Evidence from laboratory studies suggest that cocoa flavonoids may possess anticarcinogenic mechanisms, but more research is needed to prove this idea.
• The major concern that nutritionists have is that even though eating dark chocolate may favorably affect certain biomarkers of cardiovascular disease, the amount needed to have this effect would provide a relatively large quantity of calories which, if unused, would promote weight gain. Obesity is a significant risk factor for many diseases, including cardiovascular disease. As a consequence, consuming large quantities of dark chocolate in an attempt to protect against cardiovascular disease has been described as ‘cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face’.

As a stimulant:
• Sugar: Chocolate bars (as opposed to cocoa) contain large amounts of sugar.
• Theobromine: This is the primary alkaloid found in cocoa and chocolate, and is one of the causes for chocolate’s mood-elevating effects. This mild stimulant belongs to the methylxanthine family, which also includes the similar compound caffeine, with which theobromine is frequently confused.
• Anandamide: An endogenous cannabinoid.
• Tryptophan: An essential amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin, an important neurotransmitter involved in regulating moods.
• Phenethylamine: An endogenous alkaloid and monoamine. Often described as a ‘love chemical’, it can cause endorphin releases in the brain. However, unlike its synthetic derivative amphetamine, it is quickly metabolized by the enzyme MAO-B, preventing significant concentrations from reaching the brain.
• Caffeine: This stimulant i s present mainly in coffee and tea. Exists in chocolate in very small amounts.¹

When in doubt, use something better! Carob! This will be the topic of the next article … but think twice about consuming chocolate in all its forms. In the meantime, check out my store – you’ll find some wonderful cookbooks & other products for healthier desserts and treats!  http://livingahealthylifestyle.com/store.htm

¹ http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070627035427AAF0P3H