Chocolate – again….

08/30/2012 By 4 Comments


I just caught the tail end of a report on the radio this morning about yet another benefit of chocolate – apparently it can cut the rate of stroke in women. (See the report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.) By the time I logged in the kill-joy reporter was saying that of course chocolate also contained lots of fat and  sugar which increased the likelihood of stroke so we should not take this research as license to pig out. However, it did ring lots of memory bells…. How often over the last few years have we been told that chocolate is the answer to all out woes?

So I just thought I would have a little browse through the FoodsMatter site, without venturing any further afield, and this is what I came up with:

April 2012 – A serving a day of dark chocolate might keep the doctor away

October 2010 – A blog citing a research from the Johns Hopkins Medical School also recommending chocolate to stroke patients.

February 2010 – Great Chocolate news – it can reduce your stress levels while warding off Alzheimer’s and heart attack. Bring it on…

September 2009 – Chocolate for migraine?

July 2008 – Chocolate for CFS

(Just picked up yet another – Systematic review in the Cochrane Library, 15 August 2012, suggests that  flavanols found in dark chocolate reduce blood pressure and therefore the risk of stroke and heart attack.)

The same question asked of Google would no doubt have produced enough reports to fill the British Library! But the especially chuffing thing about all of these reports, from a freefrom-er’s or a dairy-intolerant’s perspective, is that it is dark chocolate that you need to eat – milk chocolate will do you no good at all!

Anyhow, in a shameless effort to plug our new freefrom directories, you might want to check out what freefrom chocolates you could use to improve your stress levels, migraine, CFS and reduce your likelihood of having a stroke here –  and if you are nut allergic, you might want to check here.

And…..  Advance notice. I saw Stephen and Barbara Burgess of D&D Chocolates at the weekend and they tell me that their new website will be going live very soon, complete with a delicious range of new Christmas totally freefrom choccies and carobs – including some really lovely little mint filled snowmen! I got a taste….

 

Filed Under: Alternative/Complementary Health, Conventional Medicine, FreeFrom Food, Nuts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chocolate – and yet more chocolate…

10/04/2010 By 2 Comments

Now that is the kind of Monday morning I like! Three points up in the Ryder Cup (sorry, golf-haters…) and some research which says that not only is dark chocolate good for Alzheimer’s and emotional stress – but, if you have a stroke, it may prevent your brain from suffering too much damage!!

We reported on the first two back in February – see the report in our Nutrition and Mood section but now I read a report from Johns Hopkins Medical School saying that a compound called epicatechin found in  dark chocolate ‘stimulates two previously well-established pathways known to shield nerve cells in the brain from damage. When the stroke hits, the brain is ready to protect itself because these pathways — Nrf2 and heme oxygenase 1 — are activated.’

Apparently the idea came from the Kuna Indians who live on islands off the coast of Panama who rarely got heart problems – until they moved away from Kuna. When researchers could find no genetic reason for this they started to look at their environment and found that ‘the residents of Kuna regularly drank a very bitter cocoa drink, with a consistency like molasses, instead of coffee or soda. The drink was high in epicatechin.’

However,  before you get too excited ‘The epicatechin found in dark chocolate is extremely sensitive to changes in heat and light. In the process of making chocolate, you have to make sure you don’t destroy it. Only few chocolates have the active ingredient. The fact that it says ‘dark chocolate’ is not sufficient.’

So, obviously, we need to add another criterion to our ‘freefrom’ chocolate suppliers list – and maybe we should insist that any chocolates entered for the chocolate category of the FreeFromFood Awards includes epicatechin!

If you are interested in pursuing epicatechin-laden chocolate, raw chocolate would probably be the way to go – have a look the Raw Chocolate Company or check in with Sweet Sensations – Liz Bygrave’s excellent raw food site. There is a good article about Liz who creates the most amazing cakes and desserts without ever cooking anything on the Foods Matter site.

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