Dear Beauty Conscious Reader,
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about chocolate’s benefits. I’ve seen it reported in magazines and on the evening news. But I have new evidence that makes chocolate even sweeter.
There are two new things we now know about chocolate.
First, I have evidence that eating chocolate can cut your risk from dying of stroke nearly in half.
In one study, people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke.1
Another study found that people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than those who didn’t eat chocolate.2
About 80 percent of strokes occur when there isn’t enough blood getting to the brain.3 Your brain is starved of oxygen and nutrients and begins to die immediately.
Chocolate helps to counteract that in two ways. It’s rich in antioxidants and helps to increase circulation.
You may get a rush of pleasure when you bite into a piece of chocolate. But chocolate gives you more than instant gratification. It’s filled with antioxidants called flavonoids. And flavonoids protect the body.
Which leads me to the second new thing about chocolate. These flavonoids found in chocolate fight silent inflammation, which is the leading cause of chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke as I mentioned above, among many others.4
You can find flavonoids in vegetables, tea and red wine, but cocoa has more flavonoids.5 In fact, dark chocolate contains up to four times the antioxidants found in tea.6
But that’s not all this holiday treat can do.
The flavonol-rich cocoa in chocolate is also a vasodilator meaning it relaxes your blood vessels. It widens blood vessels so circulation is improved. This brings an increased blood flow to the brain. It also helps to lower blood pressure and improve heart function. Vasodilators like the cocoa in chocolate also help to increase circulation to sexual organs so they’re ready to respond when you are.
No wonder the scientific name for cocoa translates to “food of the gods.”
When you’re looking for a good source of chocolate, keep this in mind:
• Look for chocolate that contains 70 percent or more cocoa. This is the ingredient that contains health benefits.
• Check how much sugar is added to the chocolate you choose. Keep it as low as possible. But choose sugar over artificial sweeteners or chocolate labeled “sugar free.”
• Beware of other chemicals in the chocolate. Choose a brand that has pure ingredients and no chemical additives.
• Make chocolate your special treat of choice once a week.
• You can find good quality chocolate at a health-food store but more and more of the “good stuff” is finding its way into grocery and drug stores.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
PS: We want to wish you and your family very happy holidays from me and the Ageless Beauty Secret panelists – Coach Yari, Anesta Dawkins and Tara Smith, ARNP, NP-C. Have a beautiful new year!
1, 2 “Can Chocolate Lower Your Risk of Stroke?” American Academy of Neurology. www.aan.com
3 “Causes of Strokes” http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stroke/DS00150/DSECTION=causes
4 Wang, J.F., Schramm, D. D., et al, “A Dose-Response Effect from Chocolate Consumption on Plasma Epicatechin and Oxidative Damage,” Journal of Nutrition 2000;130:2115S-2119S
5 Arts, I., Hollman, P., Kromhout, D., “Chocolate as a source of tea Flavonoids,” The Lancet 354; (9177): 488-488
6 Fisher, N., Hughes, M., et al, “Flavanol-rich cocoa induces nitric-oxide-dependent vasodilation in healthy humans,” Journal of Hypertension 2003; 21(12):2281-2286
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