By guest blogger Diana McCalla Though not traditionally thought of as a nutritious food, modern research is establishing cocoa as just that, surprisingly enough, when it is processed properly.Brian Buijsse, MSc, and colleagues report the news in the Archives of Internal Medicine. They studied 470 elderly men for 15 years, tracking the men's cocoa consumption, including chocolate.Cocoa intake was tied to lower blood pressure and reduced death risk, the study shows. Natural compounds in cocoa called flavanols may be the reason, write Buijsse and colleagues.Although there have been a few small intervention studies published, the amount of chocolate in these studies was huge -- in most cases 100 grams, or about 3 1/2 oz., per day.Flavanols are the main type of flavonoid found in cocoa and chocolate. In addition to having antioxidant qualities, research indicates that flavanols have other positive influences on vascular health, such as lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow to the brain and heart, making blood platelets less sticky and able to clot, and lowering cholesterol.Flavanols, which give cocoa a pungent taste, are largely destroyed during cocoa processing.Are all types of chocolate healthy?Before you grab a chocolate candy bar or slice of chocolate cake, it’s important to understand that not all forms of chocolate contain high levels of flavanols.Cocoa naturally has a very strong, pungent taste, which comes from the flavanols. When cocoa is processed into your favorite chocolate products, it goes through several steps to reduce this taste. The more chocolate is processed (through things like fermentation, alkalizing, roasting, etc.), the more flavanols are lost. Most commercial chocolates are highly processed. Even those found in your local health food stores. Although it was once believed that dark chocolate contained the highest levels flavanols, recent research indicates that, depending on how the dark chocolate was processed, this may not be true.Cocoa powder, which is low fat, is a healthier way to get a chocolate fix and a dose of those flavonoid antioxidants...but only if it’s not processed. In fact, recent studies indicate you need 600-900 flavanols to get the results found in studies. In order to get this much in commercial dark chocolate, you are going to load up on so much processed sugars and fats that you will negate any good. There is a great article on the difference between “good” chocolate and “bad” chocolate on one of my two websites below.For more information you can visit http://cocoa101.com, http://cocoa101blog.com
