Can Chocolate Be A Health Food?

By Dr. W. Gifford Jones

February 3, 2002

Here's a hint for a Valentine's gift for your sweetie this February. Flowers? Dinner at her favourite restaurant? How about tying a big red ribbon around her favourite heart-shaped box of chocolates? If so, some studies show that the latter, a box of chocolate may be beneficial to her heart.

I must admit that I too love chocolate. But how many of you share my problem? Every time I succumb to my favourite chocolate bar I get the usual guilty feeling. So I could hardly wait to read about how chocolate could have cardiovascular benefits.

Dr. Louis Grivetti, Professor of Nutrition at the University of California, says that chocolate has been used since the 16th century to treat gastrointestinal problems, stomach pain, fever, fatigue and shortness of breath. I doubt it cured their problems, but I'm sure it was equal to most medicines.

But since love is in the air on Valentines Day will it help your love-making? If this is what you have in mind chocolate might help here to. The Aztec Indians considered chocolate an aphrodisiac. The story goes that Montezuma consumed a huge chocolate drink before visiting his harem.

Alas, this is more fiction than science. A chemical called phenylethylamine is present in chocolate and does play some part in emotional arousal. But studies show that eating chocolate does not increase the levels of this chemical in the brain.

What a shame chocolate won't set your hormones ablaze. But at least scientists reported good news about its effects on the heart at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.

We know that procyanidin flavonoids are naturally found in cocoa. Test-tube experiments revealed that these substances help to protect vessel walls and inhibit inflammation as effectively as over-the counter pain medication. And procyanidins also relax the arterial wall of the aorta, the largest artery in the body.

A Brazilian study revealed that chocolate allowed procyanidins to enter the bloodstream where they acted like antioxidants.

In fact, one study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, found that chocolate contained more of certain antioxidants than 23 different vegetables.

In another study it was found that volunteers who ate the largest chocolate meal experienced the greatest increase in blood antioxidant activity.

Antioxidants are present in fruit and vegetables. Vitamin C and E are also potent antioxidants. It's believed that antioxidants remove free radicals from the body which are associated with aging and heart disease.

Dr. Carlos Fraga, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires, reported, "These results support the concept that flavonoids present in chocolates can be absorbed in quantities sufficient to influence the oxidative defense in healthy adult subjects."

There's other good news. Researchers at the University of California discovered that drinking a cocoa beverage resulted in a decrease in platelet aggregation. The fewer platelets the less chance of a fatal coronary attack.

But before you get carried away and buy two heart-shaped boxes of chocolates a word of caution. Unfortunately, some of these studies were sponsored primarily by the chocolate-maker Mars Inc. One could argue a slight conflict of interest!

But on the other hand let's be fair. Mars Inc is merely doing what many pharmaceutical companies do, providing funds for research studies in the hope that the final results will eventually sell their product.

A report from Tufts University stresses that these are just preliminary studies. That some are test-tube experiments which can only show how certain chemical extracted from chocolate work in isolation. Not how a chocolate bar might act in the human body.

It's also well to remember that you can't equate the antioxidants in chocolate with fruits and vegetables which also contain vitamins and fiber.

This Valentines Day the message should be that chocolate in moderation can be part of a healthy diet. But never forget that chocolate is a high-fat, high-sugar food and packs a big caloric wallop.

But, for chocolate lovers, isn't it gratifying to know that at least there is some nutritional value in chocolate?

It's also great for the psyche to be a little bad now and then. It adds adrenaline to our daily lives. As William Somerset Maugham, the noted author, wrote, "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit". So now you have plenty of time to prepare for Valentines Day. See if you can remember the date!!

W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com

My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:

Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1

Pre-2008 articles by Gifford Jones

Canada Free Press, CFP Editor Judi McLeod