Nutrition had a very nice and comprehensive editorial on the essence of chocolate. It mentions the recently discovered profitable effects of chocolate on the human physiology often mentioned on this blog.
In short:
Reduction of blood pressure by 6 grams of dark chocolate per day. Probably due to the flavonol epicatechin
Reduction of platelet and endothelial cell activation
Reduction of inflammatory mediators
It can also inhibit oral caries
It can cross the blood brain barrier and increase cerebral blood flow in humans
Rightly the authors question the effects of chocolate on mood and it’s possible addictive potential. As written before on this blog, chocolate is not an antidepressant and chocolate craving is a difficult concept consisting of different features.
The authors explain t...
Nutrition had a very nice and comprehensive editorial on the essence of chocolate. It mentions the recently discovered profitable effects of chocolate on the human physiology often mentioned on this blog.
In short:
Reduction of blood pressure by 6 grams of dark chocolate per day. Probably due to the flavonol epicatechin
Reduction of platelet and endothelial cell activation
Reduction of inflammatory mediators
It can also inhibit oral caries
It can cross the blood brain barrier and increase cerebral blood flow in humans
Rightly the authors question the effects of chocolate on mood and it’s possible addictive potential. As written before on this blog, chocolate is not an antidepressant and chocolate craving is a difficult concept consisting of different features.
The authors explain t...
From the graphic above and down under you can see for each country how much chocolate per person per year (2007) was consumed in kilos. Found this graphic on the site of Alpha Galileo Europe’s site of research news, thanks to David Bradley (@sciencebase).
Eighteen EU countries were among the world’s top 26 chocolate confectioneries consumers in 2007, ranking from 11.85 kg eaten per capita in Ireland, to 4.5 kg in France and 1.04 kg in Poland. The EU 27 consumed in total 2.5 million tons of chocolate products that year, which account for around half of the global consumption world-wide
The post is also about a new method to analyze fats used in the making of chocolate. This is important because according to the Chocolate Directive (Directive 2000/36/EC) it’s only allowed...
Sinterklaas and Saint Nicolas in French, is a holiday tradition in the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas’ eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children.
Special candy is made for this event such as chocolate characters and pepernoten.
These chocolate characters come in all varieties and all kinds of chocolate. Dr Shock prefers the dark chocolate type. But he sure likes fair trade dark chocolate, because:
Cocoa is an important world commodity, produced and consumed around the globe. However, the fluctuation of the world market price poses real obstacles to earning a decent livelihood for the millions of farmers working to cultivate cocoa on sma...
About chocolate craving:
Research suggests that up to 97% of women and 68% of men experience food cravings. Chocolate is the most common one of the craved foods, typically high calorie.
A number of situations have been shown to experimentally increase cravings of chocolate consumption. For example,chocolate abstinence, stress and exposure to chocolate cues increase urges to eat chocolate.
A 15 min bout of brisk walking, equivalent to ‘fairly light’ intensity exercise, reduces chocolate cravings, with moderate effect sizes, during and for at least 10 min following exercise cessation.
Higher intensity or longer bouts of physical activity may lead to compensatory dietary behavior and/or chocolate cravings.
Cravings are generally more prevalent in women than men and decrease somewhat with...
From 7 until 22 November, Amsterdam will be the center for chocoholics. It will be the chocolate capital of the world. Participating restaurants will have menus with chocolate, there will be chocolate workshops, chocolate high tea and much more. Have a look at the website: http://www.choca.nu (in Dutch).
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Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD)
Really, the polyphenolen in cocoa inhibit the growth of bacteria responsible for the creation of plaques. Polyphenolen from cocao significantly reduce biofilm formation and acid production by these bacteria. The acid production from sucrose was significantly inhibited resulting in a reduction of localized demineralization. . Be aware that chocolate not only contains cacao but also fat and sugar each with their own effects on weight and caries.
The formation of dental plaque, which plays an important role in the development of caries and periodontal disease in humans, could be initiated by several strains of oral streptococci, a kind of bacteria.
There are two roads from carbohydrates to caries pictured in the next figure. The formation of dental plaque leads to localized demineralization d...
Chocolate consumption was associated with lower cardiac mortality in a dose dependent manner in patients free of diabetes surviving their first Acute Myocardial Infarction. In contrast, intake of other sweets was not associated with cardiac or total mortality.
Now be aware that Dr Shock is extremely biased when it comes to chocolate but this conclusion is based on a study done in Sweden and recently published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. This was an observational study, in need of confirmation by more scientifically superior designs such as a study with a large scale, long-term, controlled randomized trials.
Having said all this what they did was following 1169 patients without diabetes who were hospitalized for a confirmed nonfatal first acute myocardial infarction (”heart ...
