Health Of Cocoa Butter And Dark Chocolate

For years chocolate was included in a broad category of foods that were bad for you, but recent research is showing dark chocolate may actually come closer to being a health food. Scientists have linked cocoa and other chocolates to benefits such as lowering blood pressure and preventing heart disease.

Identification

Chocolate is made from a bean from the theobroma cacao tree and is composed of cocoa and cocoa butter, cocoa butter being the fatty portion and cocoa the nonfat portion. Cocoa butter consists of equal amounts of oleic acid, the same heart-healthy monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, and also saturated stearic and palmitic acids. Although saturated fats have been linked to increases in LDL cholesterol and the risk for heart disease, stearic acid actually appears to have a neutral effect on cholesterol, neither raising nor lowering it. Dark chocolate is also known as bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and contains 60 percent or more of cocoa solids, with little or no added sugar.

Nutrition

Cocoa beans contain approximately 50 percent fat and also carbohydrates in the form of dietary fibers. Only a small percentage in the whole bean is simple sugars. Cocoa beans also contain polyphenols with antioxidant properties that have many health benefits, as well as trace amounts of essential minerals like magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium and manganese and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, E and pantothenic acid. Other chemicals found in chocolate include caffeine, the antidepressant phenylethylamine and the stimulant theobromine, which is toxic to pets.

Benefits

According to the University of Michigan Center for Integrative Medicine, chocolate decreases the bad LDL cholesterol, reduces the risk of blood clots, increases blood flow in arteries and the heart, lowers high blood pressure and helps improve mood by boosting serotonin and endorphin levels. Regular intake has also been associated with better cognitive performance in the elderly. A study led by Andrew Waterhouse published in "The Lancet" in 1996 showed that cocoa and chocolate have higher oxygen radical absorption capacity values than many common healthy foods, such as prunes and blueberries.

Expert Insight

A Dutch research study, led by Bet Buijsse and published in 2006 in the "Archives of Internal Medicine," followed male patients from 1985 to 2000 and found that men who consumed the largest amounts of cocoa had a 45 to 50 percent lower death rate than those who consumed no cocoa, even though it was often in the form of products high in fats and sugar. The chocolate-consuming group also had a lower body mass index. A separate study, published in 2006 in the American Heart Association journal "Circulation: Heart Failure," reported that middle-aged and elderly Swedish women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had a 32 percent lower risk of heart failure.

Considerations

Many cocoa powder products are treated with alkali to make it less acidic, darken it and give it a more "chocolatey" flavor, but this processing destroys most of the healthy polyphenols. You can look for products that are natural or organic, instead. Chocolate has measurable amounts of caffeine, so if you're sensitive to caffeine, you should consume chocolate with caution. Likewise, if you have kidney stones, you may need to avoid chocolate due to its concentrations of oxalates that can lead to an increase in urinary oxalate excretion. A few people find that a chemical in dark chocolate, tyramine, can trigger migraine headaches, according to the University of Michigan Center for Integrative Medicine.