When the news first hit more than a decade ago, it seemed too good to be true: chocolate, the confection synonymous with culinary decadence, was actually good for you.
One by one, studies started appearing in medical journals—studies so richly provocative they made headlines worldwide. “Chocolate a Health Food?” pondered The New York Times in 2000. “Chocolate Is Good for You,” announced London’s Sunday Mirror in 2003. “Chocolate—The Sixth Major Food Group,” declared a Washington D.C. weekly in 2008. A year later, a candy industry professional journal wrote a cover story about chocolate bars flying off the shelves all over America. Indeed, the headlines about chocolate as “the new health food” stirred the hearts and minds (and taste buds) of many Americans.
Don’t take these headlines too literally, however. It isn’t chocolate, per se, that is good for you. It’s cocoa, the spicy powder that makes chocolate taste like, well, chocolate. All the healthful goodness in a chocolate bar is concentrated in the cocoa. Truth is, a piece of chocolate is only as healthy as its cocoa content.
Cocoa—the spice—is one of the richest source of flavanols, plant compounds that help protect the heart in a variety of ways. Study after study shows that cocoa flavanols can disarm cell-damaging free radicals, preserve cell membranes, protect DNA, prevent the formation of artery-clogging plaque, improve blood flow to the heart, lower high blood pressure, and prevent blood clots that can cause a heart attack or stroke.
The Cocoa-Loving Kuna
We’d still be eating chocolate with a chaser of guilt if it weren’t for the Kuna Indians living on the remote San Blas Island off the coast of Panama. Back in 1997, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston (part of Harvard Medical School) were the first to observe that high blood pressure is almost unheard of on San Blas, where cacao trees grow wild and cocoa, which comes from the fruit of the tree, is a staple in the diet. It is common for a 65-year-old (and older) Kuna to have the blood pressure of a 20- or 30-year-old! And it’s not due to hypertension-proof genes, because Kunas who move to mainland Panama and adopt the typical Panamanian diet develop the same high blood pressure and heart disease rates that plague the rest of the country.
The reason? Kunas eat a lot of cocoa—so much, in fact, that they have the highest intake of flavanols in the world. The typical Kuna drinks four or five cups of cocoa as a beverage a day! And that doesn’t count the cocoa added to food. Researchers believe their cocoa-rich diet also contributes to another phenomenal fact about their health: death rates from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer on San Blas Island are remarkably lower than in mainland Panama. And most of the world.
That fact surfaced when researchers from Harvard Medical School returned to San Blas Island just a few years ago to compare the causes of death among lifelong residents who had died in the previous few years to those who died in mainland Panama. Compared to the San Blas residents, death rates in Panamanians were six times higher from heart attack, 17 times higher from stroke, and 18 times higher from cancer. In fact, a person living on San Blas Island is more likely to die of malaria, tuberculosis, or the flu than any of the top six leading causes of death in industrialized nations! And much of the credit goes to cocoa.
Why Your Arteries Adore Cocoa
Cocoa’s abundance of flavanols protects the epithelial cells that line the arteries. These cells produce nitric oxide, a compound that is key to the care and feeding of your arteries. Nitric oxide relaxes and widens blood vessels, increasing blood flow and lowering blood pressure. It prevents blood components called platelets from becoming sticky, thereby helping prevent the blood clots that cause most heart attacks and strokes.
It stops the smooth muscle cells of the arteries from sprouting plaques. It even helps diminish plaque once it’s in place.
And nitric oxide isn’t only important for the heart. It also helps regulate the hormone insulin, which ushers blood sugar into cells. Balanced insulin levels are a must for preventing type 2 diabetes. (Prediabetes—blood sugar levels above the normal range but not yet high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes—is also called insulin resistance.) Nitric oxide also helps slay cancer cells before they anchor to your body.
High levels of nitric oxide improve your odds for living a long life. High levels of cocoa boost nitric oxide.
Heart-Shaped Healing
Dozens of studies show that people who consume flavanol-rich cocoa—as a powder mixed in water, or eaten in dark chocolate (defined in most studies as 74 percent cocoa)—are in much better cardiovascular shape than those who don’t. Here’s a representative sampling of the nearly 200 studies on cocoa and cardiovascular disease that have been conducted in the last decade or so:
Lower cholesterol. Japanese researchers gave drinks with either flavanol-rich or flavanol-poor cocoa to 160 people—and those drinking the flavanol-rich cocoa had substantial decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol and increases in “good” HDL cholesterol.
Reduced LDL oxidation. Artery-choking plaque only happens when LDL cholesterol oxidizes, forming the goo that sticks to artery walls. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that adding dark chocolate to the “average American diet” decreased LDL oxidation by 8 percent.
Lower blood pressure. German researchers analyzed 10 studies on flavanol-rich cocoa and high blood pressure, involving nearly 300 people—and found that regular consumption had the power to lower high blood pressure an average of 4.5 mm Hg systolic (the upper reading) and 2.5 mm Hg diastolic (the lower reading).
Better circulation. Researchers in Japan studied 39 healthy men, dividing them into two groups—one ate flavanol-rich dark chocolate and the other ate no-flavanol white chocolate. After two weeks, the men eating dark chocolate had a 22 percent boost in a measurement of blood flow through the arteries. “Dark chocolate intake significantly improved coronary circulation in healthy adults,” wrote the researchers in the International Journal of Cardiology.
Thinner blood. Doctors at the Center for Thrombosis Research at Johns Hopkins University fed dark chocolate to 28 healthy people for seven days, measuring their level of platelet activity—the tendency of the blood to form artery-blocking clots. Platelet activity fell by 27 percent. (Those eating dark chocolate also had a 6 percent drop in LDL and a 9 percent increase in HDL.)
Increased nitric oxide. German researchers gave small amounts of dark chocolate to 44 men and women, aged 56 to 73. They had a “sustained increase” in a biomarker of nitric oxide levels. And after 18 weeks, the percentage of those in the study with high blood pressure fell from 86 percent to 68 percent.
More flexible arteries. Heart disease used to be called “hardening of the arteries”—stiff arteries are sick arteries. Researchers in Greece studied nearly 200 people and found that higher cocoa intake was linked to “low arterial stiffness.” They reported their results in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Lower C-reactive protein (CRP). This biomarker of inflammation has been linked to heart disease. When Italian researchers analyzed a year of dietary and health data from nearly 5,000 people, they found that those who regularly ate dark chocolate had lower levels of CRP. “Regular consumption of small doses of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation,” they wrote in the Journal of Nutrition.
Lower risk of heart disease. All those heart-healthy benefits add up to a very positive result. When researchers in the Netherlands analyzed 15 years of diet and health data in 470 people, age 65 and older, they found that those with diets richest in cocoa were half as likely to die from cardiovascular disease, compared to people who consumed little or no cocoa.
And when researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed 136 studies on flavanols and cardiovascular disease, they found those with the highest intake of flavonols from chocolate had a 19 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease, compared to those with the lowest intake.
Survival after a heart attack. Chocolate is protective even after a heart attack. When Swedish researchers looked at eight years of dietary data from participants in the Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program, they spotted an amazing pattern—of the 1,169 people in the study who had suffered a heart attack, those who had eaten chocolate at least twice a week before the attack were 27 percent less likely to die in the eight years afterwards, compared to those who never ate chocolate. “In contrast,” they note, “intake of other sweets was not associated with cardiac mortality.”
Lower risk of stroke. Canadian researchers analyzed several studies and found that those who ate chocolate once a week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who didn’t eat chocolate, and that regular chocolate-eating also lowered the risk of death after a stroke by 46 percent.
Chocolate Goes to Your Head
Blood flow isn’t only crucial for the heart. It’s also a must for a healthy brain.
Nourishing your gray matter. Sixteen healthy people downed a flavanol-rich cocoa drink and then performed a mental task—while researchers watched the activity inside their brains, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). And those researchers saw a big boost in blood flow. “Flavanol-rich cocoa can increase the cerebral flood flow to gray matter, suggesting the potential of cocoa flavanols for treatment of . . . dementia and strokes,” concluded the researchers in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
“The prospect of increasing cerebral perfusion [blood flow to the brain] with cocoa flavanols is extremely promising,” said researchers from Harvard Medical School, in another scientific paper in the same issue of the journal.
More mental energy. When 30 people drank cocoa flavanols before taking six 10-minute mental tests over an hour, they performed better on some of the tests and had less mental fatigue.
Smarter seniors. Researchers in Norway gave several standardized tests for mental ability and memory to more than 2,000 people, aged 70 to 74, who were participants in a long-running health study tracking their diets. Those who had the highest dietary intake of chocolate performed best on the tests.
More Cocoa Cures
Is cocoa good for what ails you—no matter what ails you? Plenty of people would say yes—without any scientific evidence whatsoever! They might not be far from the truth.
Diabetes. When healthy people ate an ounce of flavanol-rich dark chocolate every day for a week they had improved “insulin sensitivity”—the ability of cells to respond to the hormone that controls blood sugar. As mentioned earlier, insulin resistance is one of the first signs that type 2 diabetes is developing.
Wrinkles.Photoaging is the scientific name for wrinkles, age spots, and other skin damage from a lifetime of exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. In a study of 30 people, eating high-flavanol chocolate for three months more than doubled their skin’s resistance to UV-caused damage. “Our study demonstrates that regular consumption of a chocolate rich in flavanols confers significant photoprotection and can thus be effective at protecting human skin from harmful UV effects,” concluded the researchers in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. “Conventional chocolate has no such effect.”
Softer skin. In another study on cocoa and skin, women who consumed a high-flavanol cocoa powder drink for three months had less skin roughness and scaling, compared to women who consumed a low-flavanol cocoa powder drink.
Preeclampsia. This condition of high blood pressure during pregnancy strikes 5 percent of pregnant women and can threaten the life of both mother and baby. Researchers from Yale University studied nearly 3,000 pregnant women and found that those who routinely ate chocolate had a lower risk of developing preeclampsia than those who never ate chocolate—19 percent lower in the first trimester of pregnancy, and 40 percent lower in the third trimester.
Endurance. Nine top cyclists were asked to cycle to exhaustion on a stationary bike—but those who drank chocolate milk before starting were able to cycle up to 51 percent longer than those who drank other types of sports drinks.
With Chocolate, You Want to Be in the Dark
Want to protect your heart, nourish your brain, balance your blood sugar, and brighten your skin? Then don’t eat chocolate. Milk chocolate or white chocolate, that is. Remember, health benefits from chocolate are from the flavanols in cocoa—and flavanol-rich cocoa powder or dark chocolate (the type that contains at least 60 percent cocoa, and ideally no less than 74 percent) is the only way to get those flavanols into your body.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University proved this when they measured the amount of flavanols in the blood of two groups of chocolate lovers: one eating 3½ ounces of dark chocolate a day and one eating the same amount of milk chocolate. After two weeks of chocolate-eating, the blood levels of flavanols in people eating dark chocolate shot up by 20 percent, but stayed the same in those eating milk chocolate.
The milk in milk chocolate might even foil flavanols. That’s the finding of researchers in Italy and Scotland, who discovered that when milk is added to make smoother, creamier chocolate, it binds with flavanols, interfering with their absorption. When the researchers had people wash down dark chocolate with a glass of milk, blood levels of flavanols didn’t go up.
Cocoa, on the other hand, gives you concentrated flavanols—without the fat and calories found in a chocolate bar. One ounce (one serving) of Dove dark chocolate, for example, contains 155 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 185 mg of flavanols. One tablespoon of Mars Cocoapro cocoa powder—used in many of the research studies—has about 20 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, and approximately 1.8 grams of flavanols. Just like other spices, cocoa itself has virtually no impact on your daily calorie count, but can make your levels of health-protecting nutrients soar.
In other words, you can consume cocoa without gaining weight! In a study conducted by researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine, 44 overweight people drank a cocoa beverage, with or without sugar, for six weeks—and didn’t gain weight. “Our study suggests that healthy overweight adults can make cocoa ingestion part of their daily diet routine without adverse effects on body weight,” concluded the researchers in the International Journal of Cardiology.
Getting to Know Cocoa
Throughout this website, you’ll find condensed histories of spices that feature the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, and China. But the Mayans, Aztecs, and other ancient peoples of Mexico and Central and South America also had thriving civilizations—and the spice they revered was cacao.
The Aztecs called it “the food of the gods,” honoring their deities with a ceremonial drink called tchacahoua. Concocting the drink was an elaborate ritual—seeds were extracted from cacao pods, roasted, and reduced to powder with giant stones; the powder was added to boiling water, along with honey, ground maize, annatto, and red chiles; the mixture was slowly stirred over a fire until it became a frothy blend. The Aztec leader Montezuma is said to have drank 50 cups of tchacahoua out of a golden goblet on one occasion.
Chocolate was imported to Europe by the Spanish in the 15th century (where it was reserved for royalty and aristocrats). By the 17th century, cocoa houses were opening in England—where chocolate was available to anybody who could pay for it.
The British Royal Navy brewed a cocoa drink called kye to keep sailors awake on night watch. Making the brew was considered an art that required an apprenticeship to perfect. Kye was considered potent enough to drink when it was thick enough to hold a spoon standing straight up.
Some of the first European imbibers of cocoa praised its healthful properties, with one text claiming it “comforted the liver, aided in digestion, and made one happy and strong,” according to the book The True History of Chocolate. (The same text also presciently said cocoa healed “heart pain.”)
Europeans also adopted the spice into their cuisines. An old Sicilian lasagna recipe, for example, includes crumbled unsweetened chocolate in the meat sauce. Spanish cooks braise rabbit and squab in wine and chocolate. The Spanish also combine powdered chocolate, milk, and butter and pour it over steamed lobster.
Cocoa is derived from beans in fruit pods produced by the cacao tree.Needless to say, cocoa is still immensely popular in the Americas. Cocoa with cinnamon is one of the most popular beverages in Mexico, where many drink it daily. Cocoa is added to fish soups, corn chowders, spicy sauce bases called sofritos, and spice blends called recados. It is also a key ingredient in mole, a popular hot sauce. (One of the most complex of those sauces is mole negro, from Oaxaca, Mexico, which includes more than 20 ingredients and takes hours to make.)
In America, cocoa is best known for its presence in innumerable sweet treats. (But the secret to many of the chili recipes that win awards in the contests conducted each year in towns throughout the US is a dash—or more—of cocoa powder.)
How to Buy Cocoa
The cacao tree—small trees that sprout large fruit pods containing cocoa beans—are indigenous to Mexico and Central and South America, but are now cultivated in West Africa, Sri Lanka, Java, and Malaysia.
Unprocessed, cocoa beans are extremely bitter and virtually inedible. To turn them into chocolate, the beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. Then the shells are removed, revealing the nibs, which are again ground and liquefied, resulting in chocolate liquor. That liquor is further refined into either cocoa solids or cocoa butter; the latter is the ingredient found in most chocolate confections.
Chocolate gets its strong astringent flavor from the flavanols in the cocoa. The higher the percentage of cocoa in a chocolate product, the higher the level of flavanols and the stronger the flavor.
But those healthy flavanols in chocolate get diluted as sugar and milk are added. Dark chocolate is chocolate in its purest and healthiest form. The most healthful dark chocolates contain 74 percent or more cocoa solids. If you’re interested in a healthier heart, don’t buy anything under 60 percent cocoa.
Many European (and some US) brands of cocoa undergo a process called dutching to give the cocoa a milder flavor. However, the process also reduces flavanols. Dutched cocoa runs in shades from light brown to dark brown to almost black. The darker the color, the milder the flavor—and the less flavanol in the product.
Cocoa may help prevent and/or treat:
Alzheimer’s disease
Cholesterol problems (high “bad” LDL cholesterol, low “good” HDL cholesterol)
Dementia (non-Alzeheimer’s)
Diabetes, type 2
Fatigue, mental and physical
Heart disease
High blood pressure (hypertension)
Insulin resistance (prediabetes)
Memory loss (age-related, mild cognitive decline)
Preeclampsia
Stroke
Wrinkles and aging skin
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Cocoa pairs well with these spices:
Allspice
Almond
Aniseed
Cinnamon
Clove
Curry leaf
Fennel seed
Garlic
Ginger
Lemongrass
Mint
Nutmeg
Onion
Vanilla
and complements recipes featuring:
Carrots
Cheese
Fish
Ground beef
Nuts
Oranges
Sauces for desserts
Savory sauces
Sweet potatoes
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Other recipes containing cocoa:
All-American Chili con Carne
Cocoa Rub
Los Banos Low-Fat BrowniesThis traditional brownie recipe cuts saturated fat by substituting monounsaturated canola oil for butter and cocoa for chocolate squares. The spices help enrich their delicate flavor.
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
cup canola oil
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup crystallized ginger, diced
1 teaspoon amchur (optional)
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup toasted almonds, chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8?×8? baking pan with non-stick spray.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Beat sugar into the eggs in a large bowl. Stir the oil, cocoa powder, ginger, amchur, cardamom, and vanilla into the egg mixture. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix well. Add the almonds and blend.
3. Scrape mixture into the pan and bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean. Let cool to warm or room temperature before serving.
Makes about 16 brownies.The rule of thumb for buying and using cocoa: the higher the percent of cocoa, the richer the chocolate flavor.
In the Kitchen with Cocoa
Raw cocoa is astringent and strong, but it takes on a subtly sweet flavor during cooking, and melds nicely with other spices in savory dishes. In Italy and Spain, cooks add a little unsweetened cocoa to the garlic-and-onion base for fish and meat dishes.
You can get more flavanols and save on calories and fat by substituting unsweetened cocoa for chocolate in most any recipe. For every 1-ounce chocolate square, substitute 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder.
Food scientists used to think that most of the flavanols were lost during the baking process. However, recent testing found that using baking powder in recipes retains all the flavanols, though using baking soda results in some losses. Because baking soda is needed for cakes to rise, substituting baking powder for half the soda will result in a high cake and also retain almost all the flavanols, according to the study in the Journal of Food Science.
Here are easy ways to get more cocoa into your diet:
• Cocoa goes well with naturally sweet vegetables, such as carrots and sweet potatoes. Add a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder when making glazes for these vegetables.
• Add a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to chili con carne.
• Make a healthy Mexican hot chocolate by adding 1½ tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves to 8 ounces of hot water.
• Make a low-fat chocolate glaze for cupcakes by combining ½ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder with 1 cup of granulated sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan, and stirring until it spins. Remove from the heat, stir in 1 tablespoon of butter until smooth and thick.
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