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Medical Forum / General / Nutrition / December 2007Chocolate bubble bursting
Damn manufacturers, they are taking the best out of it without even bothering to mention this on the labels ... The Problem With Chocolate Most people have heard that chocolate is good for you. But now, the medical journal Lancet is bursting the chocolate bubble. Just in time for the holidays, a Lancet editorial published today notes that there won't be a "truffle treatment" for heart disease any time soon. In fact, the editors point out that the very thing that makes chocolate good for you -- the antioxidants called flavanols - also make chocolate taste bitter. As a result, confectionery makers often take out the flavanols, stripping the chocolate of its main health-promoting properties. Worse, labels usually don't tell you whether your chocolate comes with or without flavanols, making it tough to know if a particular piece of chocolate has any health benefits at all. This depressing news comes just a month after Circulation, the medical journal for the American Heart Association, created a stir when it reported a study of 22 heart transplant patients who were given a dose of dark chocolate or fake chocolate. Just two hours after eating the real thing, patients had measurable improvements in blood flow and vascular function and less clotting, compared to placebo chocolate eaters, who experienced no changes. The Circulation report is the latest in a string of studies touting the benefits of chocolate. The flavonoids in chocolate, which include the antioxidants called flavanols, are similar to those found in tea, red wine and some fruits and vegetables, foods also known for their heart-healthy effects. To boost your chances of getting a flavanol-rich bar, the best bet is to look for very dark chocolate with few added ingredients, notes Dr. Jacob Shani, chairman of the Cardiac Institute at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. The darker the chocolate, the higher it's likely to be in flavonoids, according to the February issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter. A typical bar of dark chocolate contains an average of 53.5 milligrams of flavonoids. A milk chocolate bar contains less than 14 milligrams, while white chocolate doesn't have any, according to the Mayo report. But even if your chocolate is loaded with flavanols, it won't be a wonder drug. Most studies show only modest benefits from chocolate, and even though it's good for you, you still have to pay attention to calories and fat. "If you ask me what's more important, a little physical activity like walking or eating the chocolate, go take your walk,'' said Dr. Shani. "I don't think in the very near future we're going to tell every patient go ahead and eat lots of chocolate. That would be too good to be true.'' SOURCE: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/the-problem-with-chocolate/?em&ex=11983 86000&en=8bda9317b715368d&ei=5087%0A > In fact, the editors point out that the very thing that > makes chocolate good for you -- the antioxidants called flavanols - > also make chocolate taste bitter. As a result, confectionery makers > often take out the flavanols, stripping the chocolate of its main > health-promoting properties. I think that you exaggerate the problem. The so-called Dutch process reduces bitterness and the amount of flavonoids of chocolate. Still the intake of common cocoa products is associated with reduced cardiovascular and all-cause mortality as this study strongly suggests. Arch Intern Med. 2006 Feb 27;166(4):411-7. Cocoa intake, blood pressure, and cardiovascular mortality: the Zutphen Elderly Study. Buijsse B, Feskens EJ, Kok FJ, Kromhout D. Center for Nutrition and Health, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, and Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. BACKGROUND: Small, short-term, intervention studies indicate that cocoa-containing foods improve endothelial function and reduce blood pressure. We studied whether habitual cocoa intake was cross-sectionally related to blood pressure and prospectively related with cardiovascular mortality. METHODS: Data used were of 470 elderly men participating in the Zutphen Elderly Study and free of chronic diseases at baseline. Blood pressure was measured at baseline and 5 years later, and causes of death were ascertained during 15 years of follow-up. Habitual food consumption was assessed by the cross-check dietary history method in 1985, 1990, and 1995. Cocoa intake was estimated from the consumption of cocoa-containing foods. RESULTS: One third of the men did not use cocoa at baseline. The median cocoa intake among users was 2.11 g/d. After adjustment, the mean systolic blood pressure in the highest tertile of cocoa intake was 3.7 mm Hg lower (95% confidence interval [CI], -7.1 to -0.3 mm Hg; P = .03 for trend) and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 2.1 mm Hg lower (95% CI, -4.0 to -0.2 mm Hg; P = .03 for trend) compared with the lowest tertile. During follow-up, 314 men died, 152 of cardiovascular diseases. Compared with the lowest tertile of cocoa intake, the adjusted relative risk for men in the highest tertile was 0.50 (95% CI, 0.32-0.78; P = .004 for trend) for cardiovascular mortality and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.39-0.72; P < .001) for all-cause mortality. CONCLUSION: In a cohort of elderly men, cocoa intake is inversely associated with blood pressure and 15-year cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. PMID: 16505260 http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/166/4/411  SignatureJuhana Ravintoblogini: http://ruohikolla.blogspot.com/ They don't seem to realize that one can simply buy cocoa powder, which has no fat in it (and is plenty bitter) and make one's own desserts. Now on to this: "If you ask me what's more important, a little physical activity like walking or eating the chocolate, go take your walk..." This gets to the "crux" of the matter. Walking is not going to prevent lipid peroxidation, and if this is the key problem in the "typical American diet," as the molecular-level evidence suggests, then it will not help, and might actually do damage (for example, too much sun exposure to the skin with all the omega 6 or 3 PUFAs in one's flesh is a true "recipe for disaster." On Dec 24, 12:29 am, monty1...@lycos.com wrote: > "If you ask me what's more important, a little physical activity like > walking or eating the chocolate, go take your walk..." > This gets to the "crux" of the matter. Walking is not going to > prevent lipid peroxidation, ... Fortunately, it does. http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/4/1333 says: "This study was designed to determine whether endurance training would influence the production of lipid peroxidation (LI-POX) by-products as indicated by malondialdehyde (MDA) at rest and after an acute exercise run. Additionally, the scavenger enzymes catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were examined to determine whether changes in LIPOX are associated with alterations in enzyme activity both at rest and after exercise. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 32) were randomly assigned to either trained or sedentary groups and were killed either at rest or after 20 min of treadmill running. The training program increased oxidative capacity 64% in leg muscle. After exercise, the sedentary group demonstrated increased LIPOX levels in liver and white skeletal muscle, whereas the endurance-trained group did not show increases in LIPOX after exercise. CAT activity was higher in both red and white muscle after exercise in the trained animals. Total SOD activity was unaffected by either acute or chronic exercise. These data suggest that endurance training can result in a reduction in LIPOX levels as indicated by MDA during moderate-intensity exercise. It is possible that activation of the enzyme catalase and the increase in respiratory capacity were contributory factors responsible for regulating LIPOX after training during exercise. " -- Ron If a young, healthy person does exercise, the body can adapt and produce more endogenous antioxidants, but notice how Ron does the usual, which is to cite one study that appears to support his claim, while ignoring others. For example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSear ch=15643538&ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel. Pubmed_RVDocSum or: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSear ch=16475052&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel. Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus or: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSear ch=10727077&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel. Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus or: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSear ch=12486869&ordinalpos=6&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel. Pubmed_RVDocSum Please, Ron, stop playing these games already ! > To boost your chances of getting a flavanol-rich bar, the best bet is > to look for very dark chocolate with few added ingredients, notes Dr. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > of flavonoids. A milk chocolate bar contains less than 14 milligrams, > while white chocolate doesn't have any, according to the Mayo report. In what sense is the bubble bursting? It _always_ was about dark chocolate, not white or milk chocolate. > In what sense is the bubble bursting? > > It _always_ was about dark chocolate, > not white or milk chocolate. exactly, I cannot aggreee more. The headline or title, ."... the chocolate bubble is bursting" is absolute hyper nonsense. On Dec 26, 7:30 pm, drl...@drlook.de wrote: > > In what sense is the bubble bursting? > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > chocolate bubble is bursting" > is absolute hyper nonsense. You did not read it right, the chocolate is still dark but without the flavonols even if it tastes bit bitter ... I don't know by which process they are reducing them during the manufacture, this was just news in several newspapers in different countries recently. Taka > On Dec 26, 7:30 pm, drl...@drlook.de wrote: >>> In what sense is the bubble bursting? [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > process they are reducing them during the manufacture, this was just > news in several newspapers in different countries recently. It appears that you are confusing two different things. In the recent chocolate study the control group was given _cocoa-free_ chocolate: http://www.tinyurl.dk/2618 On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy them. SignatureJuhana Ravintoblogini: http://ruohikolla.blogspot.com/ > On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of > flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy them. Yes, the "Dutch process" is what I had on my mind. Do you have any references to it? I am wondering whether we can simply judge how much flavanols have been removed by the degree of bitter taste. BTW I have been eating 72% cacao Carrefour chocolate for quite a while but it doesn't taste bitter neither is too sweet. Taka > > On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of > > flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy them. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > BTW I have been eating 72% cacao Carrefour chocolate for quite a > while but it doesn't taste bitter neither is too sweet. I think what you want is lightly roasted cocoa nibs, as used in bars from Scharffen-Berger, Valrhona, and Chocovic. Of course, if you eat chocolate for purely health reasons, without regard to other factors, you probably want this crap: http://www.cocoavia.com/faq.aspx Before you ask, no I haven't tried it. Any chocolate optimized for health couldn't possibly be a good chocolate. Besides which, it contains soy protein, and I have a soy protein sensitivity. I can't eat this product without risk. >>> On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of >>> flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy them. [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > and I have a soy protein sensitivity. I can't eat > this product without risk. I use the following. It doesn't use the Dutch process and is 100% raw organic cocoa grown and harvested under "Fair Trade" practices and the process never takes the temperature above 110%. I make hot cocoa every morning using stevia to sweeten - I heat the water to 120 degrees. Navitas Naturals Raw Chocolate Powder, Organic, 16-Ounce Bags http://www.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Chocolate-Organic-16-Ounce/dp/B000P24HJ8/ ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1198728985&sr=8-1 http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=8254&at=0 -- Pramesh On Dec 26, 11:25 pm, Pramesh Rutaji <p297tongue6...@newsguy.com> wrote: > >>> On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of > >>> flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy them. [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > Pramesh Hey thanks for that. Do you know how much is required to get some benefit? Is 1 serving a day enough? > On Dec 26, 11:25 pm, Pramesh Rutaji <p297tongue6...@newsguy.com> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > Hey thanks for that. Do you know how much is required to get some > benefit? Is 1 serving a day enough? I've seen the number placed at about 28 grams/one oz. per day. I personally use about 0.75 oz a day and also get cocoa extract from taking lef.org products that contain it. Pramesh > I use the following. It doesn't use the Dutch process and is 100% raw > organic cocoa grown and harvested under "Fair Trade" practices and the > process never takes the temperature above 110%. I make hot cocoa every > morning using stevia to sweeten - I heat the water to 120 degrees. That reminds me, you can find raw cacao beans in many Mexican food stores. They are fermented, but not roasted. (Actually, you'll find a few unfermented beans in each bag.) A peeled raw cacao bean tastes very good, like a piece of 99% dark chocolate. The occasional unfermented bean has very little flavor. An unfermented bean is off-white, like a cashew nut, while the fermented beans are dark purplish brown. > > I use the following. �It doesn't use the Dutch process and is 100% raw > > organic cocoa grown and harvested under "Fair Trade" practices and the [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > unfermented bean is off-white, like a cashew nut, > while the fermented beans are dark purplish brown. Hi, About 4 gms of cocoa in the Zutphen study of elderly men resulted in about a 50% reduction in mortality. Half of this was dark and half was milk chocolaate which has only about a fourth of the polyphenols. The men got it by eating candy, so they probably took it once a day or less. The half life of the polyphenols is short, so divided doses should be better. PMID: 16505260 And indeed the Kuna Indians of Panama that were age 50 or above experienced over a 95% reduction in cancer and cardiovascular fatalities along with a 70% reduction in total mortallity compared to mainland Panamanians. They averaged 900 mg of polyphenols which they got in five cups of a cocoa beverage plus some in other recipes. They died mostly of infections and respiratory diseases due to extreme poverty and lack of health care. PMID: 17299579, PMID: 16794463. These data strongly indicate that very hi levels in divided doses are immensely potent and give additive benefits to other aspects of healthy lifestyles shared by the Kunas and life extensionists. They also explain the extreme recent interest in the issue on the part of academia, the Hershey co., and less importantly yours truely. Thomas > > > I use the following. �It doesn't use the Dutch process and is 100% raw > > > organic cocoa grown and harvested under "Fair Trade" practices and the [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Hi Thomas, Why didn't you post a guide for getting hi polyphenol levels? Thomas Unfermented, sun dried beans have 8% polyphenols Undermented, roasted beans have 5% polyphenols Fermented, sun dried beans have 4% polyphenols Fresh, or fermented and roasted beans have 2% polyphenols PMID: 17439235 > > I use the following. It doesn't use the Dutch process and is 100% raw > > organic cocoa grown and harvested under "Fair Trade" practices and the [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > unfermented bean is off-white, like a cashew nut, > while the fermented beans are dark purplish brown. I got hooked on the taste of whole unfermented cocoa beans (bought from an Internet site). Mixing in warm water -- ground beans with a very tasty 99% Pernigotti cocoa powder (dutched) 3:1 respectively, sweetened with 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon bark and add very little milk- gives a bitter but delicious drink! As you said, fermented whole cocoa beans should taste chocolatier but I have not found any site that sells them. How do you know that the beans you buy in the Mexican store are fermented (since they are whole beans, at least you can be sure that they aren't roasted or they would be nibs;-)? In fact, all dried cocoa beans are fermented to a certain degree (very little), which happens from the time the fruit is picked until the beans are dried. But this isn't long enough to be fully fermented as it happens with beans are used for all commercial cocoa products - where the cocoa beans are left in the cocoa fruits are left to ferment before they are roasted. Arbor > As you said, fermented whole cocoa beans should taste chocolatier but > I have not found any site that sells them. How do you know that the > beans you buy in the Mexican store are fermented (since they are whole By color. Unfermented beans are about the same color as a cashew. Fermented beans are dark brown. Also, by flavor. Unfermented beans do not taste at all like chocolate. > beans, at least you can be sure that they aren't roasted or they would > be nibs;-)? In fact, all dried cocoa beans are fermented to a certain [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > products - where the cocoa beans are left in the cocoa fruits are left > to ferment before they are roasted. Fermentation occurs as an explicit step in cacao processing. The pods are opened, the beans and flesh are scooped out, and they are placed in boxes to ferment. During fermentation, the color changes and the chocolate flavor develops. This also aids removal of the flesh from the beans. Mark wrote: >During fermentation, the color changes > and the chocolate flavor develops. This also aids > removal of the flesh from the beans. Mark, Comments: 1. While fermentation is an important step toward the final chocolaty taste that we all know, fully fermented beans are far from tasting chocolaty OR the roasting and dutching processes wouldn't be necessary. In fact, for most people even undutched cocoa powder, is not acceptable let alone cocoa nibs that come from fully fermented roasted beans. 2. All selling sites sell either lightly fermented beans or roasted fully fermented nibs and the question is why, why they don't sell fully fermented beans? The reason is that fermentation is probably the most delicate and problematic stage on the way from the pod to the end product. The problems are reviewed in [1] below. Large cocoa end- product producers (like Mars, Hershey and others) in Western countries have the means and the expertise for quality control but that is not the case with importers of beans that sold on the Internet. The safest product that one can get from these sellers is the lightly fermented and maybe the nibs. With the lightly fermented beans it's easy to spot discoloration (due to mold or disease), and the integrity of each bean. Again, even nibs don't have the chocolaty taste let alone expecting it from fully fermented whole beans. 3. Currently, the biggest company that I have spotted on the Internet is Navitas (I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever) that one can buy even from Amazon's site. The best price for Navitas (beans from Ecuador) currently (I think) is from iherb.com. As explained in the below website- short of getting beans from Mars or Hershey;-) there are advantages for buying from a big identified importer and a reputable websites. 4. Therefore for now my solution is to mix dutched cocoa powder that one likes with - for taste with ground whole beans for polyphenols and reduced lead contents 1. http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/genuss/kakao/kakao.htm Other interesting sites: 2. http://www.tava.com.au/article_processing.html 3. http://www.cocoatree.org/frombeantobar/harvestingcocoabeans.asp Arbor > 1. While fermentation is an important step toward the final > chocolaty taste that we all know, fully fermented beans are far > from tasting chocolaty OR the roasting and dutching processes > wouldn't be necessary. I take it you've never had fermented, unroasted cacao? >> On the other hand, the so-called Dutch process reduces the amount of >> flavanols in common cocoa products, but does not completely destroy >> them. > > Yes, the "Dutch process" is what I had on my mind. Do you have any > references to it? J Agric Food Chem. 2006 May 31;54(11):4057-61. Procyanidin and catechin contents and antioxidant capacity of cocoa and chocolate products. Gu L, House SE, Wu X, Ou B, Prior RL. Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, ARS-USDA, and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72202, USA. Cocoa and chocolate products from major brands were analyzed blind for total antioxidant capacity (AOC) (lipophilic and hydrophilic ORAC(FL)), catechins, and procyanidins (monomer through polymers). Accuracy of analyses was ascertained by comparing analyses on a NIST standard reference chocolate with NIST certified values. Procyanidin (PC) content was related to the nonfat cocoa solid (NFCS) content. The natural cocoa powders (average 87% of NFCS) contained the highest levels of AOC (826 +/- 103 micromol of TE/g) and PCs (40.8 +/- 8.3 mg/g). Alkalized cocoa (Dutched powders, average 80% NFCS) contained lower AOC (402 +/- 6 micromol of TE /g) and PCs (8.9 +/- 2.7 mg/g). Unsweetened chocolates or chocolate liquor (50% NFCS) contained 496 +/- 40 micromol of TE /g of AOC and 22.3 +/- 2.9 mg/g of PCs. Milk chocolates, which contain the least amount of NFCS (7.1%), had the lowest concentrations of AOC (80 +/- 10 micromol of TE /g) and PCs (2.7 +/- 0.5 mg/g). One serving of cocoa (5 g) or chocolate (15 or 40 g, depending upon the type of chocolate) provides 2000-9100 micromol of TE of AOC and 45-517 mg of PCs, amounts that exceed the amount in a serving of the majority of foods consumed in America. The monomers through trimers, which are thought to be directly bioavailable, contributed 30% of the total PCs in chocolates. Hydrophilic antioxidant capacity contributed >90% of AOC in all products. The correlation coefficient between AOC and PCs in chocolates was 0.92, suggesting that PCs are the dominant antioxidants in cocoa and chocolates. These results indicate that NFCS is correlated with AOC and PC in cocoa and chocolate products. Alkalizing dramatically decreased both the procyanidin content and antioxidant capacity, although not to the same extent. PMID: 16719534 http://www.tinyurl.dk/2628 > I am wondering whether we can simply judge how much > flavanols have been removed by the degree of bitter taste. BTW I have > been eating 72% cacao Carrefour chocolate for quite a while but it > doesn't taste bitter neither is too sweet. I am not familiar with the product. Perhaps you should ask the manufacturer if you want to know whether its cocoa has been Dutched. SignatureJuhana Ravintoblogini: http://ruohikolla.blogspot.com/ |
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