Dr. Esser and colleagues analyzed 44 middle-aged men over eight weeks while they ate the same amount of dark chocolate every day. They either ate dark chocolate with a regular amount of flavanol or a high amount of flavanol. The high flavanol chocolate did not have a different health effect, but did increase motivation to eat it because it tasted better.
NOS Themes:
- Science is collaborative - Dr. Essen researched this with many colleagues
- Science is based on evidence - an experiment was conducted and 44 people were analyzed
- Importance of repeatability - 44 people ate the same amount of chocolate and were all analyzed
I thought this was a very interesting topic. I did some research on it, and to add on to the article summary above. I found the amount of flavanol in chocolate can vary according to the method it is processed. Most commercial chocolates are highly processed. Although, dark chocolate contains the highest levels flavanols, recent research indicates that, depending on how the dark chocolate was processed, it may not be true. The article further explains how in order to get the maximum amount of flavanols consumers should stay away from Dutch processing of the cocoa. In the Dutch processing, cocoa is treated with an alkali to neutralize its natural acidity, this tends to reduce the amount of flavanols.
ReplyDeleteFor more information: http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/prevention/nutrition/food-choices/benefits-of-chocolate.aspx
Disha
In addition to your article and the extra information in the above comment, I wanted to find out more about chocolate's relation to health. Being a typical, teenage-chocolate-loving girl, I was curious if there were more studies about women eating chocolate. I read an article that mentioned a 9-year Swedish study of more than 31,000 women. "Those who ate one or two servings of dark chocolate each week cut their risk for heart failure by as much as a third." Also, there was another big study in Germany that found that around a square of dark chocolate a day lowered blood pressure and reduced the risk of heart attack and stoke by 39%. Like the information you provided, most of the health credit goes to the flavonoids (antioxidant compounds that increase the flexibility of veins and arteries) that are in chocolate.
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/benefits-of-chocolate?page=1