Chocolate
can be Good for the Heart - Official!
Some cocoa and chocolate
products are "extraordinarily rich" in flavanols
- a class of
natural compounds found in a variety of foods including tea and
red wine,
according to a review in the current issue of The British Journal
of Cardiology (BJC).
Experiments have shown that flavanols have specific activities
related to
vascular health.
In particular, they appear to enhance the production of a
hormone-like
substance called nitric oxide from the inside wall of arteries.
Nitric oxide can
help improve the function of the
the endothelium in healthy subjects and also in those with
heart disease.
"Endothelial dysfunction is widely accepted as an important
element in
cardiovascular
risk," says Dr Norman Hollenberg, Professor of Medicine at
Brigham and
Women's Hospital,
Boston
,
MA
, lead author of the BJC review. And
"while we
know many things that reduce endothelial function (e.g. smoking),
there are few
agents or approaches that improve endothelial function
consistently.
The striking influence of flavanol-rich cocoa on nitric
oxide-dependent
endothelial function, offers promise of a new approach to
therapy"
claim the authors.
Cardiovascular diseases remain the number 1 killer in developed
countries
such as those
throughout
Europe
and the
US
. The prime culprit is the process
of
atherosclerosis which invariably begins in early childhood and
gradually
leads to
'furring-up' and blockages in the heart's coronary arteries.
Prevention, through good eating habits and lifestyle, is one of the
best
ways to avoid
cardiovascular disease. There has been growing interest since
the early 1990s
in the potential benefits of dietary flavanols, both to delay
the development
of coronary heart disease and reduce its mortality.
The authors allude to the problems of too much chocolate consumption
and
increasing
intake of unhealthy saturated fats and increasing likelihood of
obesity. The
UK
has the highest chocolate consumption rate in
Europe
.
However,
chocolate is often high in oleic acid which can be beneficial to
health. Also,
clinical studies have shown that prolonged consumption of cocoa
butter and/or
chocolate has a neutral effect on blood lipids (fats).
"Provided total fat intake does not exceed the recommended
levels, there
is no reason to
believe that consumption of chocolate would represent an
increased risk
to health and, if the chocolate has a high flavanol content,
it may
contribute cardiovascular health benefits," the authors
contend.
They draw attention to the fact that the amount of flavanols in
finished
food products
depends on the origin, post-harvest handling and processing of
the flavanol-containing
ingredient. Thus, chocolate and cocoa products on the
market vary
widely in flavanol content. Beverages make little if any
contribution to
flavanol intake due to their ingredient processing
techniques.
Dark chocolate products generally contain more flavanols than milk
chocolate on a
weight basis, due to dilution of cocoa solids.
The authors conclude in their peer-reviewed article that:
"Evidence that
flavanols can
make an important contribution to cardiovascular health has
grown to a
degree that can no longer be ignored".
Reference
Norman K Hollenberg, Harold Schmitz, Ian MacDonald, Neil Poulter.
Cocoa
,
flavanols and
cardiovascular risk. Br J Cardiol 2004; 11(5): 379-386.
Website:
http://www.bjcardio.co.uk/pdf/Main115September-October2004379-386.pdf
Source: The British Journal of Cardiology
(15/10/04)
