Chocolate: Guilty Pleasure Or 'Nutritional Supplement'?

The benefits of chocolate have been well researched, and there is evidence that chocolate is good for both the heart and the brain. The caveat is that many of the ingredients added to healthy cocao when chocolate is manufactured are not at all healthy, particularly sugar and processed fats.

Cocoa For Making Chocolate

Cocoa beans or cacao seeds come from the pods that grow on a small tropical tree, Theobroma Cacao, that grows 10 to 20 degrees north and south of the equator on several continents including South America and Africa. It is these seeds that are at the heart of chocolate.

When we talk about cocoa many people immediately think of a hot milk chocolate drink. But cocoa is in fact just one ingredient of hot chocolate – milk and commonly sugar being the others. Cocoa is also an ingredient used to make chocolate bars and candy. Furthermore, if you buy cocoa powder, you’ll often find that it isn’t pure cacao. For instance so-called Dutch cocoa is neutralized with an alkali to get rid of the acid content. Some types of commercial cocoa powder products have other additives, so it is always advisable to check the label for ingredients.

When you buy chocolate, the percentage of cocoa solids is usually shown on the label as a percentage (by weight) of the chocolate slab or bar. But this figure also commonly includes additional cocoa butter that might have been added to the chocolate by the manufacturer. It does not include sugar or other additives like processed fat. In general, at least 70 percent cocoa solids indicate a good quality chocolate; bear in mind that a typical “good quality” commercial, so-called “dairy chocolate” might only have 20 percent cocoa solids!

I first became aware of the difference between healthy chocolate and the sugar-packed dairy milk chocolate I pigged out as a child when I watched Channel 4’s four-part series that featured Willie Harcourt-Cooze (see photo above.) Founder of the Devon (UK)-based Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory, who grows his own cocoa beans in Venezuela, Willie was undoubtedly a forerunner in the contemporary commercial production of “bean-to-bar” healthy chocolate, since earlier producers had pumped their products with milk and sugar.

How Chocolate Helps Our Health

Antioxidants help the cells in our bodies to combat damage that is caused by the free radicals that form naturally in our bodies, for instance as a result of breathing polluted air and environmental contaminants. One of the effects of too much oxidation is that low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – better known as “bad” cholesterol – forms a kind of plaque on the walls of arteries. Antioxidants help the cells of the body resist this.

READ Is Chocolate A Healthy Food For Our Heart?

Flavonoids are a key antioxidant and plant nutrient found in fruit and vegetables (and in cocoa beans). Mostly found in the form of flavanols, these flavonoids have also been found to have a profound effect on vascular health by:

• Lowering blood pressure
• Improving blood flow to the heart and brain
• Enabling the blood platelets to clot effectively

Cocoa beans also contain a large percentage of fat, commonly extracted in the form of cocoa butter, which of course is also found in chocolate. There are different types of fat including heart-healthy oleic fat, a monounsaturated form that is also found in olive oil, as well as palmitic and stearic acids that are types of saturated fat which have historically been linked to the increase in LDL and therefore the risk of heart issues. Researchers have found though that stearic acid has a neutral effect on cholesterol, acknowledging that it isn’t all bad, and that in fact most of the natural fat that comes from cacao is beneficial.

Proof That Chocolate Can Help Our Health

Having ascertained that the chief natural ingredient in chocolate (cocao) is what provides health benefits, it is fascinating to see just how much research has been done to prove these benefits. Here are just a handful of examples.

A Short History Of Chocolate

A research paper on Cocoa and Cardiovascular Health prepared by doctors at the Cardiovascular Center at the Cardiology University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland in 2009 summarized all available data relating to the cardiovascular effects of cocoa.

The research led by Dr. Roberto Corti, published online by the American Heart Association, considered not only the cardiovascular effects of cocoa and potential clinical implications of consuming cocoa, but also the history of cocoa-rich chocolate and its beneficial health effects.

In the 16^th century the Aztecs drank cocoa in a liquid form and found it was able to both fight fatigue and build resistance. Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador famous for causing the fall of the Aztec Empire, said in 1519, “A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.”

Savored by the wealthy royalty in Spain for nearly a century, when the daughter of King Philip III of Spain married the French King Louis XIII in 1615, she took chocolate with her. But it wasn’t until a Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press in 1828 that chocolate became accessible to ordinary folk. His invention was used to squeeze the fat out of roasted cacao beans, and the dry residue was then pulverized into fine cocoa powder. Early chocolate manufacturers then experimented with these ingredients, adding sugar to sweeten the taste. (It wasn’t until much later that milk was also added.)

While John Cadbury is credited with opening the first shop selling cocoa and drinking chocolate in 1824, it was another British company, Fry & Sons (which eventually merged with Cadbury in 1914) that made the first chocolate bar. Made with cocoa butter, cocoa powder and some sugar, it was described as bitter, and it took nearly half a century for the first smooth, creamy milk chocolate bar to emerge.

In 1875 Swiss chocolate manufacturer Daniel Peter used condensed milk for his revolutionary chocolate bar, instead of the powdered milk that Cadbury was using for their already established milk chocolate drink. Just four years later another Swiss chocolate maker, Rodolphe Lindt invented a conching machine that removed moisture, acidity and unwanted odor from the chocolate. It was kneaded and churned in the machine, making the chocolate smooth and silky.

Health Benefits Of Good Chocolate

Dr Corti et al state that the first evidence of cocoa reducing risks of coronary heart disease, stroke and cardiovascular disease was found amongst the Kuna Indians who live on islands off the coast of Panama. They consume huge amounts of cocoa every day, sometimes with the addition of salt, and clinical studies show that they have lower blood pressure and no decline in kidney function that is related to age. 

This particular research review also cites long-term US and Dutch studies that show cocoa intake significantly reduces the risks of cardiovascular mortality (by 50 percent in the Dutch study.) Linking these benefits, at least in part, to flavanol content of cocoa, they noted – controversially – that these benefits were markedly reduced when cocoa was drunk with milk or if it was consumed in the form of milk chocolate.

Additionally, this report states that both flavanols and dietary antioxidants in cocoa might decrease resistance to insulin. There has not been much research to support this supposition, though there is some evidence from studies using obese diabetic mice that cocoa prevents hyperglycemia.

Ultimately they concluded that while cocoa could be recommended without hesitation, chocolate could not because of the sugar and fat that is so often added to it. This is particularly interesting since two of the report authors received grants from chocolate manufacturers MARS Inc and Nestle.

READ Is Dark Chocolate Really Better For You?

Another research review that considered chocolate in relation to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, was undertaken by a team from various universities, including Harvard School of Public Health. Headed by Eric L. Ding, a scientist in Harvard’s Department of Nutrition. Published in 2006, it made similar findings to those published by Dr. Corti three years later.

A study published in the American Society of Nutrition’s Journal of Nutrition in 2008 headed by Robin R Allen from the University of Illinois, found that as long as chocolate bars contained plant sterols and cocoa flavanols, and were low in fat, if eaten regularly could lower cholesterol and improve blood pressure.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2011 evaluated chocolate consumption with the risks of cardiometabolic disorders. Acknowledging that diet is a key lifestyle factor in the prevention and control of these disorders, they concluded that there is evidence that chocolate consumption substantially reduces the risks of cardiometabolic distorders.

Scientists from Harvard focused on neoruvascular coupling, cognitive function, and the response to cocoa in older people. In a report published in 2013, they reported that drinking hot cocoa twice a day could help people with Alzheimer’s.

The following year, in 2014, another research study looked at the association of eating chocolate and the risks of cardiovascular events in the future. Undertaken by researchers at the School of Medicine and Denstiry at the University of Aberdeen, they too found that more chocolate equals a lower risk of heart attack. They also concluded that there was no reason for those concerned about cardiovascular risk to avoid chocolate.