As we hurtle from one food scare to another, our sense of doom, gloom and general despair about the food we eat deepens. But with Easter fresh in the memory, perhaps it’s a good time to offer some much needed good news by exploring the virtues of one of the nation’s favourite comfort foods – chocolate.
Chocolate has been with us long before the likes of Cadbury’s got their hands on it. As long ago as AD600, cocoa beans were being enjoyed in the form of a drink by Mayans in South America. Over the centuries, chocolate has been used not simply as food but for such diverse purposes as a form of currency and even an aphrodisiac…
But chocolate has become a much maligned and misunderstood food – a guilt-ridden, forbidden treat associated with burgeoning waistlines and spotty skin. But for the female readers, I’m pleased to confirm that it really could offer a healthy alternative to men…
That’s because chocolate is packed full of naturally occurring compounds called flavonoids. There is mounting interest in the positive effect these beneficial plant compounds could have on our health. We’re talking here about similar compounds to those you might find in red wine or green tea. After spending years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking amongst the Kuna people in Panama, Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated that the health benefits of epicatechin – a flavonol found in cocoa – were so striking that it should be classified as a vitamin. Indeed, Hollenberg’s findings, although only observational in nature, found that epicatechin could reduce the risk of 4 out of 5 of the most common diseases in the western world.
But before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight. Not any old chocolate will do. We’re talking the dark stuff – and that means at least 70% cocoa solids. Milk or white chocolate just doesn’t cut it. As the cocoa levels decline, and the sugar and milk increases, the potential health benefits take a corresponding nose-dive. And that’s not only because there’s less cocoa solids in milk chocolate. It’s thought that the milk itself may interfere with the uptake of the beneficial plant compounds found in chocolate.
The idea that chocolate could be a heart healthy food seems somewhat counter-intuitive. But the flavonoids found in dark chocolate may indeed help to keep our arteries healthy and reduce the risk of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and stroke. Indeed, there is some evidence that dark chocolate may even increase levels of the ‘good’ type of HDL cholesterol.
It’s also choc-a-bloc (excuse the pun) with antioxidants – the much-hyped compounds that play an important role in staving off premature ageing and certain degenerative diseases by neutralising harmful compounds called free radicals. A test developed for measuring the antioxidant properties of different foods uncovered the satisfying fact that dark chocolate is a true antioxidant heavyweight – weighing in with an antioxidant score roughly 6 times greater than free-radical busting blueberries, 10 times greater than raspberries and 20 times greater than kiwi fruit.
Perhaps no surprise then that the dark, flavanol-rich type of chocolate may be more friend than foe when it comes to skin health, with some evidence showing it to reduce UV sensitivity, increase subcutaneous blood flow, improve skin texture, skin density, skin thickness and skin hydration.
As with everything in life, moderation is key – after all, chocolate is relatively high in fat and calories and even the dark stuff will contain some sugar. But on balance it seems fair to say that dark chocolate has more in common with a health food than a junk food. With moves afoot to develop cocoa powder with up to eight times the levels of the health promoting flavonoids it may be that Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompa’s had it right all along. Although we all remember what happened to Augustus Gloop…
