At 04:56 PM 9/9/2005, you wrote:
>So, OK... So, I've never before heard that chocolates were beneficial not
only >for one's spirit but also for one's physical being ...
Tamara, you hear it now!! Hot chocolate drink is better than green tea or
red wine. Following is the report from the web, but I'm sorry to note that
solid chocolate does not quite rate up with the drink because of the extra
fats in it, but the original benefits are still there.
If anyone wants to read more, just search Chocolate Health and you'll get
lots of hits.
Hmmm.....I haven't had my cup today. Maybe I should...........??
Alice in Oregon
ITHACA, N.Y. -- There is a new reason to enjoy hot cocoa on a cold winter's
night in front of a cozy fire. Consider it a health drink.
Beyond the froth, cocoa teems with antioxidants that prevent cancer,
Cornell University food scientists say. Comparing the chemical anti-cancer
activity in beverages known to contain antioxidants, they have found that
cocoa has nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times
those found in green tea.
Their finding [was] published Dec. 3 in the American Chemical Society's
Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry , a peer-reviewed publication.
Scientists have long known that cocoa contains antioxidants, but no one
knew just how plentiful they were compared with those in red wine and green
tea.
The Cornell researchers, led by Chang Y. (Cy) Lee, chairman of the
Department of Food Science and Technology at the university's New York
State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., say the reason that
cocoa leads the other drinks is its high content of compounds called
phenolic phytochemicals, or flavonoids, indicating the presence of known
antioxidants that can stave off cancer, heart disease and other ailments.
They discovered 611 milligrams of the phenolic compound gallic acid
equivalents (GAE) and 564 milligrams of the flavonoid epicatechin
equivalents (ECE) in a single serving of cocoa. Examining a glass of red
wine, the researchers found 340 milligrams of GAE and 163 milligrams of
ECE. In a cup of green tea, they found 165 milligrams of GAE and 47
milligrams of ECE.
"If I had made a prediction before conducting the tests, I would have
picked green tea as having the most antioxidant activity," said Lee. "When
we compared one serving of each beverage, the cocoa turned out to be the
highest in antioxidant activity, and that was surprising to me."Phenolic
compounds protect plants against insects and pathogens, and they remain
active even after food processing. A decade ago "food scientists did not
know that phenolics had an important role in human health," says Lee.
Lee and his colleagues used two chemical tests that measured how well the
cocoa compounds scavenge for free radicals -- agents that cause cancer,
heart disease and other diseases.
In the paper, the researchers discuss eating chocolate bars instead of
drinking cocoa. "Although a bar of chocolate exhibits strong antioxidant
activity, the health benefits are still controversial because of the
saturated fats present," the researchers write. They explain that cocoa has
about one-third of a gram of fat per one-cup serving, compared with eight
grams of fat in a standard-size 40-gram chocolate bar.
Faced with the confusing prospect of drinking red wine or green tea or
cocoa, Lee suggests enjoying all three in different parts of the day.
"Personally, I would drink hot cocoa in the morning, green tea in the
afternoon and a glass of red wine in the evening. That's a good
combination," he says.
The research paper is titled "Cocoa Has More Phenolic Phytochemicals and a
Higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine." Lee's collaborators
are his former graduate student, Ki Won Lee; Hyong Joo Lee, a professor at
Seoul National University, South Korea; and Young Jun Kim, a post-doctoral
researcher at Cornell. The research was funded in part by the BioGreen 21
Program, Rural Development Administration, Republic of South Korea
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