Dark chocolate is a brain booster and much more
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Chocolate is surely one of the best known desserts in the world. You can eat it as it is, you can drink it or you can use it in a great numbers of delicious recipes. You can mix it with cakes, fruit and even pizzas; there are even so many festivals about it. However, chocolate has one big drawback: it's very unhealthy for its high dose of sugar and calories, this is why it's consumed in very small portions. But what if I tell you some types of chocolate are as delicious as good for your health? This is what the last 20 years research tells us.
A food at least 4000 years old
The first uses of cocoa dates back to pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Mayans and even earlier the Olmecs, who used chocolate mainly during important rituals like a child's coming of age and on religious occasions. Among the Aztecs cocoa was considered a luxury drink; in fact, it did not grow on Aztec soil but had to be imported from populations of Yucatan Peninsula where cocoa trees grew. A Spanish soldier in the service of the conquistador Hernán Cortés, reported that the emperor Moctezuma II drank not less than 60 times a day a golden cup of hot chocolate: cocoa was consumed bitter and mostly in liquid form, called xocoalt (hence the name chocolate), especially from nobles and soldiers which always consumed it with extreme solemnity due to the "inebriating power" that was attributed to it. The xocoalt was very different from chocolate as we imagine it now: the base was made of cocoa powders obtained from “theobroma” plant (literally food of the gods), peppers, corn flour and honey, which were mixed with water and decanted several times: if executed properly, this process determined the formation of a foam that was put aside and added to the drink before consumption. However, less elaborate variants of the drink were also consumed by married couples, as they were thought to have an aphrodisiac power. Mayans and Aztecs already knew the medical properties of this food and they used it for the treatment of fatigue, fever, heart pain, anaemia, intestinal and kidney disorders; in Europe it was introduced long time after, when Aztec civilization was destroyed by Spanish conquistadores and the exotic cocoa beans were exported to Spain in XVI century. The chocolate recipe was a Spanish secret for almost a century: it was Francesco Carletti, an Italian traveller, who saw how Indians in Central America prepared chocolate and made the first chocolate drink outside Spain. Soon after that, the chocolate spread in all other European countries.
The miraculous molecule
Dark chocolate was already suspected to be good for our health since antiquity, as we just read. It's considered to be a “superfood”, which stands for food that contains high levels of nutrients compared to “standard food” and can help with health disorders. Anyway, there was no real scientific evidence for chocolate benefits on health until a few years ago. In fact, it is only recently that real scientific studies have been carried out and discovered that the beneficial properties of cocoa are to be found in the flavonoids contained in it, which are molecules endowed with strong antioxidant properties that are mainly found in plants and in the foods deriving from them.
Specifically, the flavonoid molecula of cocoa belongs to the flavonols category and it is called “epicatechin”. In 2014, a study published in Nature Neuroscience by Columbia University Medical Center staff showed that the mnemonic and cognitive abilities improved exponentially in elderly subjects who practiced a high-content diet of cocoa flavonols (900 mg) compared to subjects who practiced a diet and with a low content of these (10 mg). The study aimed to see the effects of flavonoids in older people suffering from age-related memory loss, a physiological process that normally does not impact on quality of life until after 50-60 years and it is very different from memory loss from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease. The administration of flavonoids took place using a drink specifically prepared by the “Mars” company and the results were obtained comparing memory tests and magnetic resonance scan, which revealed a neuroplastic effect in a specific area of the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, which widely involved in memory processes. Moreover, the same drink was administered to approximately 18,000 patients at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for another study that showed the positive effects of epicatechin on the cardiovascular system. It should be noted that in these studies it was always used a drink made by a concentrate of cocoa flavonoids and not chocolate as we commonly known, which often is bad for our health due to high quantity of sugar, fat and other unhealthy ingredients.
The cocoa leaflet
About a month ago,the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting was held in San Diego, California. This congress is attended by five big scientific societies that work in the world of biochemistry, biology and medicine. This year two studies on the effects of cocoa on humans were presented.
In the first work, scientists studied the brain activity of healthy subjects who ate 70 grams (a bar) of 70% dark chocolate. An electroencephalographic scan was carried out at 30 and 60 minutes, showing that there was a strengthening of the neuronal activity of the cerebral cortex, which was limited to one hour from the chocolate intake. In the second study, the administration of this amount of chocolate was practiced daily for 1 week. The results were surprising: from the genetic analysis carried out by blood sampling, the expression of genes that regulate nerve transmission, sensory perception and immune response has been increased, while the expression of the genes involved in inflammation decreased. Moreover, dark chocolate has several other beneficial effects, including brain stimulation, improvements in cardiovascular function and blood pressure; still there are many other under research. Until now, the energizing properties of chocolate had been associated with the high sugar content, but today researches shows that the molecules with antioxidant activity promote neuroplasticity stimulating brain, influencing memory, learning and the mood. The beneficial effects of cocoa flavonoids are not limited to enhancing our brain: these molecules have recently attracted the attention of numerous scientists for their ability to improve glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, preventing diabetes and cardiovascular complications of diabetes, heart attacks, cardiovascular diseases, promoting proper renal and bowel function, reducing the risk of developing a cancer. Cocoa is not the only food containing flavonoids: the wine, and especially in red wine, there is a great quantity of flavonoids which justifies the assertion that "a glass of red wine a day is good for the heart."
"Too bi(tter) or not too bi(tter)"
That's the Hamletic question. I have always been a great fan of chocolate since I was a kid and living in a country like Italy where you can find so many kind of fine artisanal chocolate and chocolate foods really helps loving it. As I grew up, my relationship with chocolate changed a lot: from milk chocolate (which contains usually 10% to 20% cocoa) lover to dark chocolate sporadic consumer. More than a change of taste it was health awareness: dark chocolate is far more healthier (less fats, less sugar, less calories) than milk chocolate but not as sweet as it, so my chocolate use decreased as consequence.
Anyway, after I read those science updates on chocolate flavonoids, I decided to start eating a small portion of dark chocolate every couple of days, mainly to boost mood when I feel down (and to get other benefits, of course). But before I found my preferred dark chocolate, I made a huge mistake and my tastebuds are still angry with me for that. Since more cocoa percentages in chocolate means more flavonoids, I recently bought a 99% cocoa chocolate piece.
Never do that unless you know what are doing.
That chocolate was so bitter and so floury that I didn't managed to eat even a small piece of it. That was the exact moment I realized why researchers used a 70% dark chocolate to make experiments described above. Still, if they sell them, It means someone actually buys them, my guess it's just a matter of taste. So, if you are going to be a dark chocolate consumer after reading how good chocolate can be for your health, my suggestion is to start with a 70% dark chocolate bar and test your taste. As for my 99% dark chocolate bar, I used it to do some really good dark chocolate muffins!
Conclusions
Cocoa is attracting in recent years the scientific community and the food industry, which sees high cocoa products as a huge economic possibility. It is no coincidence that many studies in this sector are sponsored by confectionery companies: having a tasty product that is good for the heart, brain, kidneys, bowel and those suffering from diabetes and that possibly protects even from cancer, it’s a very big deal for profits. While the scientific community studies the biological mechanisms behind all these positive effects of flavonoids, I can recommend eating a small piece of dark chocolate a day: maybe it will not heal you from all ills, but at least you'll be a bit happier!
References
Brickman AM, Khan UA, Provenzano FA et al. Enhancing dentate gyrus function with dietary flavanols improves cognition in older adults. Nat Neurosci. 2014 Dec;17(12):1798-803. doi: 10.1038/nn.3850.
Lee Berk, Josh Miller, Kristin Bruhjell et al. Dark chocolate (70% organic cacao) increases acute and chronic EEG power spectral density (μV2) response of gamma frequency (25–40 Hz) for brain health: enhancement of neuroplasticity, neural synchrony, cognitive processing, learning, memory, recall, and mindfulness meditation. The Faseb Journal, Apr 2018.
Lee Berk, Kristin Bruhjell, Warren Peters et al. Dark chocolate (70% cacao) effects human gene expression: Cacao regulates cellular immune response, neural signaling, and sensory perception. The Faseb Journal, Apr 2018.
Shah SR, Alweis R, Najim N et al. Use of dark chocolate for diabetic patients: a review of the literature and current evidence. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2017 Sep 19;7(4):218-221. doi: 10.1080/20009666.2017.1361293
Braakhuis AJ, Campion P, Bishop KS et al. Reducing Breast Cancer Recurrence: The Role of Dietary Polyphenolics. Nutrients. 2016 Sep 6;8(9). pii: E547. doi: 10.3390/nu8090547.
Jang S, Sun J, Chen P et al. Flavanol-Enriched Cocoa Powder Alters the Intestinal Microbiota, Tissue and Fluid Metabolite Profiles, and Intestinal Gene Expression in Pigs. J Nutr. 2016 Apr;146(4):673-80. doi: 10.3945/jn.115.222968.
Aprotosoaie AC, Miron A, Trifan A et al. The Cardiovascular Effects of Cocoa Polyphenols-An Overview. iseases. 2016 Dec 17;4(4). pii: E39. doi: 10.3390/diseases4040039.
Ariefdjohan MW, Savaiano DA. (2005) Chocolate and cardiovascular health: is it too good to be true? Nutrition Reviews, Dec; 63(12Pt 1):427-30.
Ding E.L., Hutfless S.M., Ding X., Girotra S. (2006) Chocolate and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review. Nutrition Metabolism (Lond) 3;3:2.
Coe, Sophie D. & Michael D. The True History of Chocolate. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2013.
Presilla, Maricel. The New Taste of Chocolate. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2001.
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