C is for Chocolate

June 9, 2006

C is for Chocolate

By Ralph Moss, Ph.D.

The Moss Report

http://cancerdecisions.com

The Aztec King Tezozomoc of Azoapotzalco regarded

chocolate as a divine substance: he offered

distinguished guests cocoa in a tortoise shell that

was highly polished and ornamented with gold

arabesques. Early on, chocolate developed a reputation

as an aphrodisiac. Montezuma is said to have drunk

chocolate before entering his harem. The famous

botanist Carl Linnaeus got to name the plant and with

great perspicacity called it Theobroma cacao, food for

the gods. Most of us like chocolate, but some of us

(especially women) crave it so much that they are

virtually addicted. There may be a biological basis

for this.

First let's get our terms straight. The plant is

called cacao, a word derived from the Aztec word

"cacahuatl." This is an evergreen tropical American

tree that bears leathery ten-ribbed fruits on the

trunk and older branches. Cocoa powder is made from

cacao seeds, which have been fermented, roasted,

shelled, ground and freed of most of its fat. Cocoa is

also the name of the beverage made by mixing this

powder with hot water or milk. In North America and

Europe, we always mix this powder with a sweetener,

usually sugar. But the word cacahuatl meant "bitter

water" (from xococ, bitter + atl, water). One can

gradually cultivate a taste for less sweet forms of

chocolate. Even today, Mexicans prize chocolate as an unsweetened food and use it in their famous chicken dish, mole poblano.

Most people assume that anything that tastes so darn

good just has to be bad for you. But according to

Karon Harder, a clinical dietitian at Northwest Texas

Health Care System, "chocolate can be healthy when

it's part of a varied diet. It's not that chocolate is

bad for you," she says. "But what's added to chocolate

isn't that good."

A report in January of 2002 from France showed that

certain substances in cocoa powder inhibit 70 percent

of cancer cells during a critical phase of their

growth cycle. Japanese researchers have shown that

tiny amounts of a cacao bean extract (called

polycaphenol) are more toxic to human tumor cells than

to normal cells. In some regards polycaphenol was even

more effective than vitamin C. Pretreatment of mice

with polycaphenol also protected them from lethal E.

coli infections.

In 2001, the eminent food researcher John Weisburger,

PhD, concluded: "The cocoa bean, and tasty products

derived from the cocoa bean such as chocolate, and

the beverage cocoa, popular with many people world-

wide, is rich in specific antioxidants."

The regular intake of such products, he continued,

would increase the level of antioxidants, prevent the

oxidation of "bad" LDL cholesterol, and probably

prevent heart disease. "It would seem reasonable to

suggest inhibition of the several phases of the

complex processes leading to cancer," Weisburger said.

The darker the chocolate, the better it is for you,

according to Prof. Joe Vinson of the University of

Scranton. Weight for weight, he said, milk chocolate

has twice as many antioxidants as blueberries and dark chocolate has five times as many. And cocoa powder contains twice as much antioxidants as dark chocolate and is almost devoid of fat.

Chocolate may also be good for your heart and digestion.

In 2001 a number of researchers at the University of California, Davis found that chocolate inhibits the clumping of platelets. "Cocoa consumption had an aspirin-like effect," they wrote. Cocoa butter is mainly stearic triglyceride, which is less well absorbed than other fats, and is excreted. Thus, cocoa butter has a minimal effect on serum cholesterol.

I am not advocating an unrelenting diet of chocolate

bars, which contain nine grams of fat per ounce and

also sugar, cream, saturated fats and other less

desirable things. There is a way to avoid the bad

stuff by making your own cocoa drink. Start with

organic cocoa powder and mix it with hot water to make

a paste. Then add more hot water or low-fat milk and

sweeten with a little honey. The resulting drink is

quite delicious. It also might fight cancer and heart

disease -- not a bad combination for a substance that

not long ago was relegated to the "junk food" category.

Chocolate is very complex. It contains

phenylethylamine, an amphetamine-like substance that selectively elevates some brain chemicals that are associated with pleasure. Other chemicals in chocolate have the ability to bind to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, mimicking the effects of marijuana. There may be something to the old folk tale that chocolate is an aphrodisiac.

Chocolate may also have some negative effects,

particularly in migraine sufferers and among women

with severe PMS. It may increase kidney stone

formation in those who are prone to that painful

disease. Recently, two Arizona researchers wrote a

paper asking whether chocolate was a food or a drug.

So who knows? Perhaps sometime soon the FDA will

reclassify this substance and you will have to apply

for an Investigative New Drug (IND) number just to get

a chocolate bar.

Why is there always money for war, but none for education?

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