Here is a wonderful topic of discussion, Cocoa and your heart. Antioxidants in cocoa might help your heart by keeping your blood vessels relaxed, thus easing blood pressure and helping circulation, so says a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (WebMD).
The study shows that the antioxidants in this raw chocolate, called flavonoids, coax the body into making more nitric oxide, which relaxes the blood vessels.
The researchers included Norman Hollenberg, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He tells WebMD that cocoa’s flavonoids could improve heart health.
“Now, would it replace giving up cigarettes? No, I don’t think so,” Hollenberg says.
“Would it replace adjusting your lipids? No, I don’t think so. But it’s a very powerful factor and I think it probably ranks with cholesterol as an important factor in heart attacks.”
Consumers should closely examine products touting flavonoids, Hollenberg says. “You have to demand that they tell you the flavonoid content. I mean, I notice that some of the ads on chocolate say that ‘This contains more than 70 percent cocoa powder’, which is a nice claim but it has nothing to do with flavonoids.
Most people don’t measure flavonoids, so they don’t tell you.
Flavonoids are found in many plants, including onions, broccoli, and tea. but in raw chocolate it stands by itself- it’s extraordinarily rich in flavonoids. Could you get the same amount of flavonoids from other foods? Well, yes and no. You have to eat a lot of broccoli and onions and drink a lot of tea, but you can.
Chocolate also contains flavonoids, but the problem with chocolate is the burden of fat it carries, so it’s hard to make chocolate a health food, whereas the chocolate has the fat squeezed out of it, so it could be a health food, he continues.
Now, I’m hoping that people actually make a flavonoid-rich chocolate that will be available for sale and that people incorporate into their diets. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m hoping it will,” says Hollenberg.
That chocolate has happened, it is called Xocai Healthy Chocolate.
Raw Cocao And Your Heart – Raw Cocao Powder Benefits-Weight Loss Diet Tips 4 Life!
