Cocoa 'could get rid of the West's top killer diseases'
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 12 March 2007
Not even Willy Wonka, Roald Dahl's eccentric chocolate-maker, could
have dreamt that his scrumptious products might one day offer the
world a panacea.
But scientists are close to claiming just that. A compound in
unrefined cocoa has health benefits that may rival those of penicillin
and anaesthesia, they say.
Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School,
has spent years studying the Kuna people in Panama. He found that four
of the most common killers - stroke, heart disease, cancer and
diabetes - affected fewer than one in 10 of the Kuna.
Unrefined natural cocoa contains high levels of epicatechin, which
Professor Hollenberg said was so important it should be considered a
vitamin.
He told Chemist and Industry magazine: "If these observations predict
the future, then we can say without blushing they are among the most
important observations in the history of medicine. We all agree that
penicillin and anaesthesia are enormously important. But epicatechin
could potentially get rid of four of the five most common diseases in
the Western world. How important does that make epicatechin? I would
say very important."
Daniel Fabricant, vice-president at the Natural Products Association,
said that the observations might warrant a rethink of how vitamins are
defined. There are 13 vitamins that are defined as essential to the
normal functioning, metabolism and regulation of cell growth, and
deficiency is usually linked to disease.
"The link between high epicatechin consumption and a decreased risk of
killer disease is so striking, it should be investigated further. It
may be that these diseases are the result of epicatechin deficiency,"
Mr Fabricant said.
Epicatechin is a flavanol and is also found in tea, wine, chocolate
and some fruits and vegetables. Flavanols are removed from commercial
cocoas because they tend to have a bitter taste. The milk and sugar
with which they are commonly drunk in developed countries also
undermines their health-giving properties.
Cocoa that retains its flavanols, used to make dark "bitter"
chocolate, improves blood supply to the brain and may boost short-term
memory. Researchers in Nottingham showed that drinking flavanol-rich
cocoa boosted blood flow for two to three hours.
Ian Macdonald, who led the study presented to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco last month, said:
"This raises the possibility of enhancing brain function among older
adults or for others in situations where they may be cognitively
impaired, such as fatigue or sleep deprivation."
A history of chocoholism
* The first people believed to have grown cocoa beans were the Olmec
Indians, around 1500BC.
* Cocoa beans were used by the Aztec civilisation to make a frothy,
quite bitter hot drink that is nothing like the modern, sweet-tasting
chocolate.
* Cocoa beans contain several hundred flavour compounds.
* Britons each eat 10kg (22lb) of chocolate a year - more than any
other European nation.
* The Englishman Joseph Fry created the first chocolate bar in 1847.
* Last year, Britons spent £4.3bn on chocolate.