Awesome Chocolate Is Awesome
An array of things have already been said about chocolate with regard to its beneficial effects to the human mind and body. Little do we know that deeper investigation and research are being done so as to lengthen the existing long list of the good things about it.
The American Heart Association did a study, reported in their journal named Hypertension. The outcome of which indicated that cocoa, which is the main ingredient of chocolate, has antioxidants that aids in improving mild cognitive impairment in the elderly.
The said research involved a group of aged participants, who in a span of two months, were supplied with drinks that have different cocoa flavonol levels. Such process produced results displaying that the ones who received the highest of these doses exhibited progress in a few cognitive tasks, which includes memory function.
Other flavonol rich products, aside from chocolate, include red wine, apples, tea as well as berries.
Moreover, new studies look back at past studies to compare. They have found out that cocoa products high in flavonols may contain a small, but very significant role, in lowering high blood pressure.
More to these, it also aids in alleviating risks for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and aging problems.
Nevertheless, keep in mind that too much of everything is bad enough. Yes, chocolate can do you good but it can backfire when you go overboard. Take slow steps, and always eat in moderation.
Furthermore, dark chocolates have more cocoa in them, hence an increased sense of beneficial effects. White chocolate does not contain cocoa at all, sad to say. All chocolates are high in calories and sugar, it’s not a secret anymore. You would not want to overgrow your favorite clothes or be swimming in a bed of ants.
Many people tend to be hard on themselves by depriving themselves of chocolate. That’s not ideal. If you want to enjoy it, throw away the guilty thoughts and savor it the healthy way. Better!
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: aids, chocolate facts, chocolate lovers, chocolate studies, chocolate tasting, cocoa, research, things
Chocolate and Parkinson’s Disease
A recent study published in the Neuroscience Bulletin by Borah et al. at the Assan University in India showed that B-Phenethylamine (B-PEA, a substance naturally found in cococa beans) could be a causative factor for Parkinson’s disease.
The scientists said: “As consumption of some B-PEA-enriched food items has become an addiction in modern life, our proposed mechanism is of enormous significance and impact.” That is the reason behind their suggestion of limiting consumption of chocolate.
Nevertheless, their statements are quite arguable, since it focuses on rodent studies. They admit that they need deeper investigation on human needs.
Study shows that a person eating a standard size of 100g chocolate per day, he or she has a B-PEA intake of 0.36-0.83 mg per day. It relies upon on the type of chocolate ingested, though.
Past research indicated that 0.63-1.25mg/day of chocolate consumption could bring about Parkinson’s in adult mice.
One of the scientists said: “These results suggest that the amount of chocolate that a person takes normally might be toxic to dopaminergic neurons.”
Don’t worry, given that some antioxidants also found in chocolate can fight these negative effects, since so many studies have found out that polyphenols like cathechins could protect against Parkinson’s disease.
B-phenethylamine is also found in wine and cheese. Nevertheless, chocolate is supposedly the highest-containing food item.
Scientists don’t have a full grasp on Parkinson’s disease yet, but too much production of reactive oxygen species and the resulting mitochondrial complex-I dysfunction have reportedly been the underlying cause.
Researchers have always been curious about the beneficial effects of chocolate on Parkinson’s disease, considering Parkinson’s patients have the tendency to eat more chocolate than the general population.
It has been recently found out that there were no scientific evidences that showed how chocolate improved the motor function in Parkinson’s patients. They concluded that the increased chocolate consumption is “largely enigmatic.”
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: CHOCOLATE, chocolate consumption, chocolate science, chocolate studies, fight, found, Parkinson's Disease
Chocolate Fitness
Regular ingestion of chocolate has been recently associated with healthy weight, according to a study involving 1,000 adults done at the University of California at San Diego.
Dr. Beatrice Golomb, who led the research which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, said: “People have just assumed that because it comes with calories and it’s typically eaten as a sweet… it would inherently have been one way: bad,”
This particular study involved 1,000 mostly middle-aged adults who had their dose of exercise thrice a week and had their dose of chocolate twice every week. Those who had more chocolate usually had lower body mass indexes.
It’s no surprise that chocolate makers will lay out the benefits of chocolate, and so will fitness trainers. Many personal trainers are now linking chocolate to fitness, especially when you eat it after a strenuous workout or right after exercising.
Blake Raun, a trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Chicago, said: “Chocolate can increase one’s resting metabolic rate,” He added: “Having a higher resting metabolic rate means better metabolism and the more calories one can burn.”
The resting metabolic rate (RMR) refers to the minimum amount of calories that the body requires in backing up the basic physiological functions. Nevertheless, fitness trainers are not suggesting chocolate to be a separate supplement to their client, but they know that chocolate really packs a lot of benefits in exercise performance.
Golomb also acknowledged the benefits of chocolate in fitness. She also mentioned how chocolate milk is so popular as a sports drink during and after a strenuous workout in this time and age. She cited the results from the research that involved lab rats.
She said: “Chocolate essentially acted as an exercise magnet, allowing rats to run farther and increase muscle mass,” She also said that the research involving rats have indicated that these animals had a noticeable increase in their endurance, thus giving a reason to anticipate this pattern in humans.
The next time you want to hit the gym, you might want to have some chocolate with you. You can share it with your gym buddies, as well!
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate studies, exercise, fitness, milk chocolate, research, week
Math And Chocolate
It’s no secret that many of us dread numbers, especially when it comes on a test paper. Many of us have math as waterloo. You might deem this irrelevant as nonsensical, but chocolate and math actually have a strong link. How come? Read on.
A group of researchers presented a study during the annual Brighton Show at the British Psychological Society that showcases how chocolate containing compounds of flavanols which is a part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols can make mental arithmetic easier for people by means of boosting the blood supply to the brain.
According to the said research, the volunteers who were given 500mg of flavanols in their cocoa drinks had lower chances of experiencing mental draining. Professor David Kennedy who is the director of the performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University and co-author of the study said “For things that are difficult to do, mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work it could help.”
Such researcg involved 30 volunteers in groups of three were instructed to count backwards randomly between 800 and 999 as chosen by the computer. These people were provided with cocoa drink first and was discovered that they were quick and accurate with the calculations later on. The participants were observed to be less tired in spite of being asked to do the task over and over again within an hour.
If you lack in the department of math problem-solving skills, a cocoa drink or anything rich in flavanols and you can continue getting on with your life without having to fear numbers. Okay, that’s pretty sugarcoated, but you get the picture!
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: CHOCOLATE, chocolate studies, cocoa, math, numbers, people
Chocolate Dessert With Breakfast
Recent studies have found out that integrating dessert into your well-balanced 600-calorie breakfast, that contains carbohydrates and proteins, allows people who are on a strict diet to shed unwanted pounds and maintain it in the long run.
Scientists categorized 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults into two groups. Such groups were provided with virtually the same low-carbohydrate diets containing 1,400 calories every day for females and 1,600 calories per day for males. Nevertheless, one group was given a low-carbohydrate 300-calorie breakfast, while the other group was provided with a 600-calorie breakfast that’s loaded with carbohydrates and protein, and it always came with a dessert.
In the first 16 weeks, losing weight didn’t have difference for the two groups. However, following the 32-week period, people who had a dessert, like cake or cookies, along with their breakfast were able to shed about 40 pounds more as compare to those who consumed the lighter, low-carbohydrate breakfast.
“What you eat for breakfast does not make you fat,” in accordance with professor Daniela Jakubowicz, part of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Diabetes Unit at Wolfson Medical Center. She cited that breakfast gives energy you can use for the whole day. It can increase your metabolism and aid in the thinking processes. If a low-calorie diet restricts carbohydrate intake in the morning, your metabolism tends to crash. That said, the body will compensate which will eventually promote weight gain the moment you consume carbs, which is likely to happen since you’ll be starving come lunchtime. “Breakfast increases metabolism and decreases hunger,” she added.
Research has it that eating chocolate in the morning tends to maintain the levels of serotonin during the day, so you won’t feel depressed. The moment the chocolate you had in the morning crosses your mind, you would not recall the fact that it did make you happy, given that you had it when your level of serotonin was up. Thus, it can decrease your dependence on chocolate.
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Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate information, chocolate studies, serotonin
