I came across this today. Thought some of you may be interested.
The heart benefits of chocolate
(WTNH, Feb. 27, 2006 2:21 PM) _ Some solid validation for you chocolate lovers out there!
by Dr. Mike Rosen
A new study in a major medical journal says chocolate lowers your blood pressure and helps prevent deaths from cardiovascular disease!
Can this really be true????
Is chocolate really a health food---please say it?s so!
It?s always a little dicey pronouncing chocolate a health food, because it is often in something with a lot of fat and a lot of sugar.
And there are lots of things that we love that are bad for us (let?s not get started), tonight, we get to celebrate one of the things we love that it turns out, is good for us.
Thankfully, medical science has proven that sex is good for us, that alcohol, in moderation of course, can be good for us.
And now a well-constructed piece of medical literature shows cocoa intake will lower your blood pressure and your risk of dying from things like heart attacks.
The theory is, that cocoa, especially dark chocolate is rich in chemicals called flavanols, which for one, is believed to prevent blood clotting--the problem with heart attacks and strokes.
Dr. Michael Farkouh, Director of Clinical Trials and Cardiologist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says, ?The good cholesterol in your blood called HDL is raised and the bad cholesterol LDL is lowered, so all of those factors put together may explain why there is an independent effect of blood pressure that there is a lowering of mortality.?
Mars is applauding. The company rolled out a line of heart healthy chocolate products.
Dr. Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer for Mars, Inc, says, ?The implications for Mars as a cocoa business are that we have new opportunities to reinvent cocoa and different things to create products that can improve public health.?
?In fact there appears to be a long term benefit of reduces cardiac mortality and overall mortality which is quite pronounced about a fifty percent reduction,? says Dr. Farkouh.
But some key points:
First, it really should be dark chocolate. And it should be low in fat, and in moderate amounts.
Dr. Farkouh says, ?You don?t want to give the message that the more you eat the more halter you will be because there are calories involved and that leads to obesity, childhood obesity. It is not even half of a Hershey?s chocolate bar that would have lead to the finding in the study.?
Still, a little guilty pleasure is nothing to feel guilty about.
But we should really emphasize the point, this is not an excuse to go out and gorge yourself on a pint of high fat chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream; you should be thinking low fat, lower in sugar--there are products out there that are like that, look for them.
The heart benefits of chocolate
(WTNH, Feb. 27, 2006 2:21 PM) _ Some solid validation for you chocolate lovers out there!
by Dr. Mike Rosen
A new study in a major medical journal says chocolate lowers your blood pressure and helps prevent deaths from cardiovascular disease!
Can this really be true????
Is chocolate really a health food---please say it?s so!
It?s always a little dicey pronouncing chocolate a health food, because it is often in something with a lot of fat and a lot of sugar.
And there are lots of things that we love that are bad for us (let?s not get started), tonight, we get to celebrate one of the things we love that it turns out, is good for us.
Thankfully, medical science has proven that sex is good for us, that alcohol, in moderation of course, can be good for us.
And now a well-constructed piece of medical literature shows cocoa intake will lower your blood pressure and your risk of dying from things like heart attacks.
The theory is, that cocoa, especially dark chocolate is rich in chemicals called flavanols, which for one, is believed to prevent blood clotting--the problem with heart attacks and strokes.
Dr. Michael Farkouh, Director of Clinical Trials and Cardiologist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says, ?The good cholesterol in your blood called HDL is raised and the bad cholesterol LDL is lowered, so all of those factors put together may explain why there is an independent effect of blood pressure that there is a lowering of mortality.?
Mars is applauding. The company rolled out a line of heart healthy chocolate products.
Dr. Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer for Mars, Inc, says, ?The implications for Mars as a cocoa business are that we have new opportunities to reinvent cocoa and different things to create products that can improve public health.?
?In fact there appears to be a long term benefit of reduces cardiac mortality and overall mortality which is quite pronounced about a fifty percent reduction,? says Dr. Farkouh.
But some key points:
First, it really should be dark chocolate. And it should be low in fat, and in moderate amounts.
Dr. Farkouh says, ?You don?t want to give the message that the more you eat the more halter you will be because there are calories involved and that leads to obesity, childhood obesity. It is not even half of a Hershey?s chocolate bar that would have lead to the finding in the study.?
Still, a little guilty pleasure is nothing to feel guilty about.
But we should really emphasize the point, this is not an excuse to go out and gorge yourself on a pint of high fat chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream; you should be thinking low fat, lower in sugar--there are products out there that are like that, look for them.
