On Apr 12, 8:43 am, Steve <nom...@msn.com> wrote:How much chocolate do
you need to eat per day to get the benefits? <<

It depends on the chocolate and how it was processed and it seems just
looking at whether it is dark or not doesn't .. completely .. cover
the ABILITY of the chocolate to 'do its stuff'.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060225/food.asp

Prescription Strength Chocolate, Revisited
Janet Raloff

For roughly a decade, science-savvy chocolate consumers have taken
comfort from a string of studies suggesting that their sweet and
usually high-fat vice has a potential up side. The most reassuring
news was that the antioxidant flavonoids abundant in dark chocolate
appear to reduce blood pressure and perhaps protect people from
dangerous blood clots.

Raw cocoa beans, shown here nestled in their pods, contain huge
amounts of heart-healthy flavanols. Commercially processing the beans
to make cocoa powder strips away most of those compounds. Mars,
however, determined how to retain them to make flavanol-rich cocoa for
research trials--and for what it's now marketing as a heart-healthy
snack.
USDA

At the Cocoa Symposium, convened at the National Academy of Sciences
in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, researchers reported new
findings on chocolate's biological impacts. The studies focus on
specific flavonoids in chocolate, such as epicatechin, that offer the
strongest cardiovascular benefits. The bad news: Most commercial
products--even dark chocolates--retain few if any of these natural,
plant-based chemicals.

However, the new data do suggest how chocolatiers might tailor their
candy recipes to preserve--and potentially even augment--concentrations
of beneficial flavonoids. The new studies also might provide some
reasons that diets rich in fruits and vegetables are good for people's
hearts.

"Cocoa is a fruit," notes chemist Harold H. Schmitz, chief science
officer for Mars Inc., the world's largest chocolate manufacturer.
Those flavonoids in cocoa that appear to confer the strongest
cardiovascular benefits are found in plenty of other dietary sources
as well, including tea and apples. Indeed, he says, any of these plant
products might yield bioactive compounds that could fight heart
disease.

Debunking cocoa myths
At the Cocoa Symposium, researchers presented data to shatter a pair
of longstanding "myths," Schmitz observes. The first is that the heart-
healthy components of cocoa are antioxidants that quash naturally
destructive molecular fragments in the body. The second misperception
is that a person can get cocoa's heart-protecting constituents simply
by downing nearly any off-the-shelf dark chocolate.

Early work by scientists at Mars and elsewhere fostered both
perceptions, Schmitz admits. For instance, studies had traced at least
some cardiovascular benefits to a class of flavonoids known as
flavanols and their polymers called procyanidins (SN: 3/18/00, p.
188). Key among the chocolate flavanols linked to heart benefits was
epicatechin, a known antioxidant. Dark chocolates--including those that
are the main ingredients in Mars' Dove Dark bar and the mini M&M
baking bits--were identified as being rich in these constituents.

However, University of California researchers Hagen Schroeter and
Christian Heiss presented data at the symposium indicating that at
least some of the flavanols' benefits trace to functions other than
fighting oxidation. For instance, standard commercially processed
cocoa powder has little or no flavanol content, but it retains a high
concentration of other antioxidants. This cocoa offered almost no
cardiovascular benefits in tests with isolated tissues or people
consuming the cocoa.

Moreover, notes Schroeter, even in people consuming flavanol-rich
cocoa products, "most of the flavanols present in [blood] have been
altered by the body following consumption and are known to have even
less antioxidant potential than their parent [compounds]."

Schroeter's group teamed up with Norman K. Hollenberg, Schmitz, and
others to look at how cocoa's epicatechin works. At the meeting,
Hollenberg described finding that this flavanol and its breakdown
products enhance production of nitric oxide (NO). In the body, NO
dilates blood vessels, relaxes arteries, and enhances blood flow.

In one trial, the researchers administered cocoa drinks to 10 people
and monitored the effects on blood flow. On one occasion, each person
got a cocoa drink that was virtually devoid of flavanols. Another
time, each volunteer drank a cocoa that tasted the same but was rich
in these flavanols. Neither the participants nor the people taking the
blood-flow readings knew which cocoa had been administered.

Only the flavanol-rich drink produced substantial blood-flow benefits,
the researchers report in the Jan. 24 Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The fact that the benefits, which lasted
several hours, were prevented by administering a drug that shuts down
NO production "unambiguously showed that cocoa flavanols turned on NO
synthesis and improved blood flow," Schmitz says.

He adds that the study exposes the fallacy of judging chocolate's
flavanol content by measuring its cocoa-solids content. Both drinks
administered in this trial were prepared with the same share of cocoa
solids, Schmitz points out.

Lessons from the Kuna
In the PNAS paper and at the Cocoa Symposium, Hollenberg reviewed data
he's gleaned from studying two genetically similar populations of Kuna
Indians, people renowned for their cocoa consumption. One group of the
Kuna lives on the San Blas islands off Panama. The other consists of
migrants residing on the mainland in Panama City.

In earlier work, Hollenberg reported that the island-dwelling Kuna had
significantly lower blood pressure than their mainland kin did (SN:
3/2/02, p. 142: Available to subscribers at
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020302/note17.asp). One
difference between the populations: The islanders drank an average of
5 cups of cocoa daily, but the mainland group downed fewer than 4 cups
per week.

Schmitz notes that the two populations also drank different cocoas.
Traditionally, island-dwelling Kuna take fresh-picked cocoa beans and
dry them under the sun. Then, they grind the beans into a powder for
use in foods and drinks. "Effectively," he says, "they're consuming
about as close to fresh cocoa as one can get." By contrast, the
islanders' mainland kin now tend to drink commercial cocoas that have
been as heavily processed as U.S. cocoas. The products also retain as
little of the starting flavanols as most U.S. products do.

Hollenberg's follow-up work, reported in the PNAS paper, confirms that
the islanders also have far larger exposures to cocoa flavanols. Tests
showed that flavanol-residue concentrations in urine were six times as
high in the islanders as in the mainlanders.

At the Cocoa Symposium, Hollenberg reported that dramatic long-term
benefits may be attributable to the islanders' cocoa habit: Their
death rate from heart disease is less than 8 percent of that in Kuna
mainlanders, and cancer kills only 16 percent as many islanders. The
two populations were matched for age, weight, and a number of other
factors that might affect heart and cancer risks.

Hollenberg concludes that the Kuna epidemiological data, although
preliminary, "indicate that a flavanol-rich diet may provide an
extraordinary benefit in the reduction of the two deadliest diseases
in today's world."

Toward healthier chocolates . . . and spin-offs
Schmitz acknowledges that "Mars, like every other chocolate business,
tends to use cocoa that has been processed in the standard industry
way." The result is that most of its products end up virtually devoid
of flavanols.

Like its competitors, Mars doesn't want to tinker greatly with the
recipes of its popular products. However, for much of the past decade,
the company has been seeking to create a snack that would not only
taste good--which pure cocoa does not--but also would pack a healthy
wallop of epicatechin and related compounds. The company has recently
begun marketing a relatively low-calorie, high-flavanol candy bar
using a specially processed starting ingredient called CocoaPro.

In the August 2005 Journal of Hypertension, Hollenberg and Naomi D.L.
Fisher of Brigham and Women's Hospital describe the flavanol content
of various chocolate products. CocoaPro powder topped the list, with
nearly 5,000 milligrams of flavanols per 100 grams of cocoa. The Kuna
islander's cocoa beans contained nearly 4,000 mg/100 g, and their
cocoa powder had 2,000 mg/100 g. "In stark contrast," the researchers
observe, "all of the commercially available cocoa powders or chocolate
drinks that can be purchased in American supermarkets have flavonoid
contents substantially less than 5 percent of [CocoaPro's]."

Not so fast, argue Jonathan M. Hodgson and Ian B. Puddey of the
University of Western Australia School of Medicine and Pharmacology.
In an editorial appearing in the same Journal of Hypertension issue,
they agree with Hollenberg and Fisher that a growing body of work
supports the idea that diets rich in flavonoids benefit the heart.
However, the Australian team adds, "The method still widely used to
quantify flavonoids is crude and provides no information about the
[specific] type of flavonoids present." Moreover, they note, not all
flavonoids are readily absorbed by the body. Finally, they point out
that no study has yet evaluated whether increasing flavonoids in study
volunteers' diets--from chocolate, tea, wine, or any other products--
will cut that population's heart-disease incidence.

Schmitz agrees that there's still a lot to learn. Although his team's
new PNAS paper fills in some of the gaps that Hodgson and Puddey
referred to, Schmitz says that large, multiyear trials of people
eating flavanol-rich products are needed. However, such studies are
beyond the financial reach of a candy company, he says. He's hoping
the new data are suggestive enough to entice the National Institutes
of Health or another funding organization to step in and back such
clinical follow-ups.

In the meantime, while studying how to synthesize flavanols, Mars has
developed a few novel compounds that might prove even more potent than
epicatechin at triggering NO synthesis. Although these compounds "have
zero application for us [as candy makers], they might have use in
pharmaceuticals," Schmitz told Science News Online. Indeed, he says,
"if the benefits prove striking enough, we might some day license the
compounds" to companies developing cardiovascular drugs.

For Carl Keen of the University of California, Davis, who has
conducted some chocolate studies, there is a somewhat different spin-
off. Data on the biological action of flavanols reported at the Cocoa
Symposium "add new and important pieces of information that will help
us understand why diets rich in fruit and vegetables promote
cardiovascular health," he says. Chocolate science is pointing to
which agents in apples, grapes, and other produce might offer the most
benefits--and why.

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk

Let me dwell on the negative for you. Even 85% of
chocolate is 15% add sugar. Further, this is a roasted
food that is certainly load with AGEs. And finally
the caffiene and the related methyl xanthines shorten
the life span of your bones osteoblasts so therefore
would tend to added to aging related bone thinnning.
All these points will be especially bad if you are
becoming insulin resistant and on the road
to type 2 diabetes.

The press praises this product just a little too much
for me to even trust it is a good idea and that
assumes you choose truly good chocolate.

If Jane Brody says jump left, I say tackle her.

Trig

There are some studies suggesting that dark chocolate (not just any
chocolate) to be part of daily balanced diet, about 100 g / day.
Nevertheless if you eat healthy food those extra 100 g / day might have
limited influence and you might be as well good with no chocolate at all or
with just a few grams / day.

I do too.  Love 'em!

Ever tried their 99% bars?

It's like everything else.  No one food, or loading up on one food, is
the trick.  It's the combination of the good stuff that does it.  And
a lot of recent research is indicating dark chocolate IS good stuff.
So enjoy a portion size, but to really get its benefits make sure
you're also eating/drinking pecans, spinach, tea, apples, raspberries,
pomegranates, sweet potatoes, black beans, broccoli, tomatoes, etc...

Patrick

No, it will clog your arteries.

--
  Ron

How muchchocolatedo you need to eat per day to get the benefits?

I buy 100gram Lindt 85% bars. They have 10 squares, 10grams each. If
I
have 1 square, will that do me any good?

<<

Flavanol content of cocoa cut during manufacturing
By Laura Crowley
KEYWORDS

Chocolate and confectionery ingredients
Health and nutritional ingredients

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

Egyptian weed may offer novel hydrocolloid for foods
French Senate passes controversial GMO bill
BASF to extend biodegradable focus
Milling method can improve functional properties of rice flour, study
EFSA calls for caution on bacterial resistance

GET THE LATEST MARKET REPORTS

cocoa
flavonol
Alkalisation
All market reports

18-Apr-2008 - Alkalising cocoa beans reduces the total flavanoid
content by two-thirds, reducing the antioxidant potential of the
product, according to new research.

Cocoa is alkalised during the manufacturing process to make it easier
to mix and digest. Alkalisation can also be applied to change the
colour of the product.

The health benefits of antioxidant-rich chocolate such as improvements
to cardiovascular health have received much recognition in recent
years, with positive findings from a number of studies impacting on
consumer awareness.

Chocolate manufacturers are using high cocoa content (over 70 per
cent) as a means of differentiation, and cocoa has also received
attention for its potential in functional food applications.

However, the cocoa content does not necessarily mean that the flavonol
content is high, as new research published in the Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that alkalising has negative
impacts on the flavonol levels.

"The large decrease found in the flavonoid content of natural cocoa
powder, together with the observed change in the monomeric flavanol
profile that results from the alkalisation treatment, could affect the
antioxidant properties and the polyphenol bioavailability of cocoa
powder products," said the study's authors.

The study

Major brands of cocoa powder products present in the Spanish market
were analysed for monomeric flavanols (epicatechin and catechin) and
flavanols (quercetin and quercetin-3-glucuronide, -glucoside and -
arabinoside).

Researchers found that epicatechin was in the range of 116-730
micrograms per gram and catechin was in the range of 81-447 micrograms
per gram.

Among flavanols, quercetin-3-arabionside and isoquercitrin were the
major flavanols in the cocoa powder (2-40 micrograms and 4-43
micrograms respectively).

The researchers said this was the first time quantitative data of
individual flavanol derivatives in cocoa powder products.

They added: "This data is very useful for the calculation of daily
flavanoid intake and its correlation with disease incidence or early
markers in epidemiologic and clinical studies."

To measure the effect of the manufacturing process, 10 batches of
natural cocoa powder were submitted to alkalisation up to pH 7.2.

The alkalisation treatment resulted in 60 per cent loss of the mean
total flavanoid content.

Among flavanols, epicatechin presented a larger decline (67 per cent
as a mean percentage difference) and in the case of flavanols,
quercetin presented the highest loss (86 per cent).

"Considering that cocoa powder products have a lower level of
saturated fats than chocolate bars, it seems necessary to establish a
compromise between colour and phenolic content, especially for cocoa
powder products derived from alkalised cocoa powder," said the study's
authors.

Increasing flavanols in cocoa products

Manufacturers wishing to tap in to the 'healthy' chocolate market are
aware of the detrimental effects of processing on the final flavonol
content of their products, and this has led to the development of new
processing techniques.

Confectionary giant Mars, for example, has been pro-active in research
into the potential health benefits of flavanols from cocoa and has
been sponsoring researchers in Germany and the US for about 15 years.
Other companies targeting this market include Barry Callebaut, with
its Acticoa range, which boasts high polyphenol content and are
marketed as healthy options.

Spanish firm Natraceutical has also made inroads into the market, but
has been the subject to legal challenges from Mars regarding alleged
patent infringements.

Similarly, US chocolate manufacturer Hershey increased its health-
boosting chocolate range last year with Antioxidant Milk Chocolate and
Whole Bean Chocolate.

Hershey's goodness portfolio also consists of the Extra dark chocolate
range - with a 60 per cent cacao content - and Hershey's Sticks which
contain 60 calories per bar.

Sources

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Published online ahead of print April 2008, doi: 10.1021/jf0728754
"Flavanol and Flavanol Contents of Cocoa Powder Products: Influence of
the Manufacturing Process"
Authors: C Andres-Lacueva, M Monagas, N Khan, M Izquierdo-Pulido, M
Urpi-Sarda, J Permanyer and  R M Lamuela-Raverntos

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk

 Why not have some plain cocoa powder instead and avoid the sugar and
fat?  I like it on cereal and in curries and stews.  Now that I think of
it, I ought to try it in salad dressing.