People have been eating chocolate in various forms for centuries. Historically, it was most commonly consumed in the form of liquid cocoa made from cocoa beans. In some cultures, but not all, sugar, milk, and attractive packaging were added to cocoa and sold as chocolate bars or candies.
Meanwhile, health data on those who still consume cocoa in a more traditional way are sparking debates about how beneficial chocolate can be to our health. Among the Kuna Indians who live on the islands of San Blas in Panama, low blood pressure that does not increase with age leads to fewer heart attacks and strokes, and they are less likely to suffer from cancer and diabetes. In addition, the Kuna tend to die at an advanced age. These data are provided by Marji McCulloch, Senior Scientific Director of the Department of Epidemiological Studies at the American Cancer Society.
Scientists generally believe that excess salt can raise blood pressure – yet a monkey’s diet contains the same amount of salt as the average American’s. To find out exactly what the members of this tribe ate, Macaulay went to Panama to visit the Kuna people. She discovered that the Indians consumed about four cups of cocoa a day, mixed with water and a small amount of sugar. In fact, the Kuna’s good health cannot be attributed solely to their cocoa consumption, as they also eat twice as much fruit and four times as much fish as the average American. They also lead a more active lifestyle than the population of Western countries as a whole.
Other researchers have studied the heart benefits of dark chocolate. However, as JoAnn Manson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says, these data may be skewed because people who eat chocolate frequently are generally less concerned about their weight, i.e., these people may be healthier to begin with. In one of the studies, scientists tracked the diets and health of 20,000 people and found a link between a low risk of heart disease and stroke and eating up to 100 grams of chocolate a day, including milk chocolate. The researchers also took into account other factors such as smoking and physical activity levels, but in the end did not come to a definitive conclusion, stating that the low risk of cardiovascular disease could be explained by factors other than chocolate. This was followed by a large clinical trial that took into account a wider range of health factors such as diet and lifestyle.
The health of the inhabitants of the San Blas Islands in Panama is better than that of the average American, possibly due to the regular consumption of chocolate, which is rich in flavonoids. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of episodes should remain the same. The end of the story: Promotional Podcasts.
Another study of 21,000 people, which examined the effects of cocoa and multivitamin supplements, found that daily intake of 400 to 500 mg of cocoa flavonoid supplements may reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by lowering blood pressure and inflammation in the body. As Joann Manson, who led the study, explains, she and her colleagues used supplements instead of real cocoa because the concentration of flavonoids in different brands of chocolate can vary widely, depending on harvest time and processing method. Dark chocolate can contain four times more flavonoids than tea, but research shows that flavonoids decrease during processing. Until now, scientists have not reached a consensus on how many flavonoids should be present in chocolate to see a health benefit, explains Günter Kühnle, Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Reading. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) claims that about 200 mg of cocoa flavonoids, or 10 g of dark chocolate, may be beneficial for health. However, more recent data show that about 500 mg per day is needed for a noticeable effect. This is roughly equivalent to a small 30-gram bar of chocolate. In addition, dark chocolate contains something else we know little about – a plant molecule called theobromine. Chocolate is one of the few sources of this substance, along with coffee. Theobromine is a psychoactive substance in the same family as caffeine. However, as Chris Alford, professor of applied psychology at the University of Western England, explains, it has a milder effect than caffeine. And the darker the chocolate, the stronger the effect. “If you eat a lot of dark chocolate, you can experience real pleasure, and theobromine can be more pleasurable than caffeine,” says Professor Alford.
Testing the effects of flavonoids in cocoa does not take into account other components of dark chocolate: sugar and saturated fat. Dark chocolate often contains cocoa butter, which is high in saturated fat and may increase the risk of heart disease. Research shows that the beneficial properties of chocolate depend on the amount of flavonoids it contains. “All the fats in chocolate come from cocoa butter, and […] one-third of the fats in cocoa butter are saturated and unhealthy,” says Edin Cassidy, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. Other scientists are convinced that the strongest arguments in favor of chocolate are related to its effects on the heart, and that the positive effects of regular consumption of dark chocolate are likely to outweigh the negative effects. However, they still do not directly recommend chocolate to prevent heart disease. According to Aston Medical School nutritionist Duane Mellor, eating dark chocolate in small portions can help to overcome unhealthy eating habits. “A small amount of chocolate is not harmful and can change your relationship with chocolate because you can enjoy a small amount without feeling guilty. And because of its bitter taste, you can’t eat a lot of it,” Mellor explains. The problem is that the higher the level of cocoa flavonoids in a chocolate bar, the more bitter the taste, and the more bitter the taste, the harder it is to sell. “There is a contradiction between the beneficial properties of cocoa and what we need to add to make it edible and enjoyable,” says Mellor. It gets even more complicated when you consider that fat and sugar help the body absorb the same flavonoids. “Some of these flavonoids are complex organic compounds,” says Mellor, “and one way to make them more accessible to the body is to combine them with sugar.”
There is no consensus among scientists as to how many flavonoids should be present in cocoa to have any health benefits. The question of the optimal ratio of cocoa flavonoids to sugar in chocolate remains poorly understood. In addition, there is still no way to know how many cocoa flavonoids you are getting. “Chocolate is not a healthy food, and given the amount of sugar and fat in most types of chocolate, it is quite likely that the benefits of flavonoids are insignificant compared to the negative effects of overeating sweets,” says Professor Kyunle. Now we seem to be seeing an increase in the number of small companies producing chocolate with higher cocoa content, focusing on preserving taste rather than any potential health benefits. But what if the process of preserving the true flavor of the cocoa bean itself increases the health benefits of chocolate? Martin O’Doherty, co-founder of chocolate brand Firetree Chocolate, told the BBC that in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, cocoa pods are harvested as soon as they ripen. Then the farmers open the fruit and let it walk for six days, then they take out the cocoa beans and dry them. Some of the dried beans are then sent to Firetree in the United Kingdom, where they are roasted whole. In the beginning, cocoa was processed the same way, but according to O’Dea, everything changed at the beginning of the 20th century. Cocoa farmers typically harvest two crops: the main crop, which is harvested from November to January, and the second crop, which is harvested from January to June. “The second crop of cocoa beans were fewer and slightly inferior, so at first they were not sold at all,” O’Daire explains. “But then chocolate manufacturers started buying them at discounted prices. That’s when the farmers realized they were giving away perfectly good beans at a discount and started mixing the second crop with the main crop.”
The body absorbs flavonoids more easily when sugar and milk are added to cocoa. “As a result, chocolate manufacturers began to receive beans of different sizes that required different roasting times. So chocolate companies started to peel the beans and roast the actual filling,” explains Martin O’Dear. Whether true or not, the conclusion is that small chocolate companies are now closer to solving the cocoa-sugar dilemma: roasting the whole bean, rather than just the filling, allows for a longer process at a lower temperature. And as we know from the example of vegetables, the less processing, the more nutrients are retained in the end. However, it is difficult to say to what extent this applies specifically to cocoa beans; more research is needed. All other things being equal, despite the fact that we can find flavonoids in other products, it can be assumed that dark chocolate has every chance of fitting into a healthy diet. “It’s perfectly reasonable to eat dark, high-cocoa chocolate several times a week, as long as you stay within your calorie limit,” Professor Manson says. “But it should not be considered a healthy food per se, and trying to eat more of it is not worth it.” And finally, they advise: “Try to increase the amount of flavonoids in your diet – they can be found in tea, berries, grapes and other fruits, as well as in reasonable amounts of chocolate with a high cocoa content”.