Articles
Cocoa and Health
What is cocoa?
Cocoa is processed from the beans of the Theobroma cacao plant to produced cacao liquor or simply cocoa. The cocoa can be added to sugar or milk to make dark or milk chocolate or the fat can be removed to make cocoa powder.
Dark chocolate usually has a higher proportion of cocoa while milk chocolate has a smaller portion combined with milk solids. This means if someone doesn’t tolerate milk, they can have dark chocolate but not milk chocolate.
White chocolate may not have any cocoa at all and therefore it is debated if it should be called chocolate.
Is chocolate healthy?
Published studies do show that dark chocolate and cocoa may decrease the risks factors of some life style diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This is said to occur because is contains polyphenolic compounds that can act as antioxidants minimizing the rate of LDL oxidation and therefore helping maintain the integrity of the arterial walls. Further news is that 1/3 of the fat in chocolate is a monosaturated fat called oleic that is believed to lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Another 1/3 of the fat is stearic acid that appears to have a neutral effect on blood cholesterol. There have been studies that have suggested that dark chocolate will lower blood pressure but the quantity needed to be consumed would inevitably lead to weight gain. The same applies to diabetes where increased body weight makes control of blood sugars more difficult. It is true that high fat foods have a lower GI but that does not mean we should recommend them in any significant quantity.
Balance and moderation are the keys to any healthy diet. It is important not to consume more kilojoules than can be burnt as energy. First all nutrients must be covered. A small quantity of chocolate occasionally can be part of a balanced diet. Dark chocolate will be better than milk chocolate as milk fat is 60% saturated fat. Consuming a family bar of dark or milk chocolate will mean that total intake will far exceed requirements or there will be a very imbalanced diet. Yes we do need a little fat but good sources will be nuts plus oils such as olive, canola and grape seed. Include dark chocolate but in small amounts as a treat.
Added to site on : Tuesday, 13 June 2006