Daily Cup of Cocoa Helps Prevent Flu

Written By: Margie King, Health Coach



When the wintry flu season strikes do you crave a comforting cup of hot cocoa? It could be your body's innate wisdom at work.

Nature works in mysterious ways.  Just when cold, dry weather chills us to the bone and flu season is in full bloom, we crave a comforting cup of hot cocoa.  As it turns out, that chocolate craving may be our body's innate wisdom at work.

According to a new Japanese study a daily cup of hot cocoa during influenza season may be just what we need to avoid the flu and stay healthy.[i]

The Japanese researchers conducted a three-part chocolate study that included cell tests, animal experiments, and human trials.

In the cell studies they found that cocoa extract inhibited the flu from taking hold in canine kidney cells. The cells had been infected with human influenza A (H1N1, H3N2) and B viruses, as well as avian flu viruses (H5N1, H5N9).

In the animal trial, mice were given cocoa extract for four days before being infected with the flu virus.  The cocoa extract had a preventative effect and significantly improved survival times of the mice.  

The daily dose of cocoa for the mice was equivalent to a human drinking two to three cups of a 10% cocoa solution.  In other words, the amounts were close to what a person might normally drink in a cup of hot chocolate.

Then, the researchers tested their findings in humans.  They divided 123 people into two groups.  Both groups were vaccinated against the influenza A (H1N1) virus.

For three weeks before and after being vaccinated, one group consumed a cup of hot chocolate every morning.  The drink is commercially available in Japan (under the name Kakao 2 Bai) and contains 360 mg of cocoa polyphenols per cup.  The control group did not drink any cocoa.

After two weeks, antibodies against the A (H1N1) virus were not significantly different between the two groups.  But the cocoa drinking group had significantly more natural killer (NK) cell activity.  NK cells recognize and eliminate influenza-virus-infected cells in order to keep the virus from spreading.

In other words, NK cell activity is an indicator of the body's natural immunity. Vaccine-induced elevations in antibodies, on the other, do not necessarily equate to bona fide immunity against infection as they are only a proxy measure of effectiveness.  The fact that cocoa consumption significantly increased compared to the control group suggests that drinking cocoa may inhibit influenza virus infection by stimulating natural immunity and therefore confer real world protection against onset of the flu.

Other studies had already found that chocolate elevates NK cell activity against cancer cells. The Japanese researchers believed their finding concerning the NK cell activity may suggest that cocoa polyphenols and especially procyanidins in chocolate might be effective in treating and preventing colorectal cancers  and hepatitis B virus infection in humans.

How does chocolate work against the flu?
The researchers concluded that drinking cocoa works in three different ways.

First, it inhibits the virus from adsorbing to target cells, as shown in their cell study.

Second, cocoa activates natural immunity.  In their human trial they found that cocoa enhanced the immune response from the flu vaccination.  In that way it provides stronger protection against influenza virus infection and disease onset.

Third, drinking hot cocoa has an anti-inflammatory effect. The researchers believe that the increased survival rates of mice fed cocoa may have been due to the elimination of virus-infected cells in the early stages and promotion of anti-inflammatory effects at the inflammation site.

And there's one more interesting way that chocolate fights the flu.

The researchers suggested that immediately after drinking cocoa, its healing compounds are present in the mouth, pharynx, and throughout the digestive tract at concentrations that inhibit infection.  These compounds work immediately and for some time after consumption. And they work in precisely the places where the virus would likely be present.

Some of these compounds include the polyphenols contained in chocolate. Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants and have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity.

But even when the researchers removed the polyphenols from the cocoa extract, the remaining compounds in the extract were still effective.

Those other active compounds in cacao include:

the bitter component theobromine;
lignin, a dietary fiber;
free fatty acids; and
minerals such as iron, copper, and zinc.
Chocolate does much more than fight the flu.  In fact, chocolate has well over 40 health benefits and has been called the ultimate medicinal food.

Here are just a few of chocolate's other amazing properties:

relieves stress and lowers blood pressure
better for heart health than statins
burns belly fat
lowers diabetes risk
To read more about other health benefits associated with eating chocolate or cocoa-containing foods, visit the GreenMedInfo page dedicated to Chocolate Health Benefits.

When choosing chocolate instead of a flu shot, make sure your chocolate is:

1. At Least 70% Dark.  The darker the chocolate the less sugar is added.  And sugar can be the difference between healthy chocolate and junk food.

2. Raw. The more cacao is processed, the more polyphenols and flavanols are destroyed.  So the best source of chocolate antioxidants comes from raw unprocessed dark chocolate. In fact, raw cacao has the highest concentration of antioxidants of any food.

2. Organic.  Non-organic cocoa may contain residues of the dangerous herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), and other pesticides used in conventional farming.

3. Free Trade. Cacao crops are often unfairly traded, and have even been linked to child enslavement.

 http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/daily-cup-cocoa-helps-prevent-flu

Scientists Work Out How To Make Chocolate Healthier And More Flavorful

by Justine Alford

Good news, chocoholics: Scientists have found a way to not only make chocolate more nutritious, but also to enhance its taste. Praise science!

By making a couple of simple adjustments to the earliest processing steps, researchers found that they could boost the content of health-promoting compounds in cocoa beans and also improve the resulting chocolate's flavor, making it sweeter. The work waspresented at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society and published in African Journals Online.

Humans have been gobbling cocoa for thousands of years, but it is only relatively recently that scientists have demonstrated that dark chocolate and cocoa could actually be beneficial to our health due to the fact that they are rich in biologically active compounds known as polyphenols. These chemicals are known to have a variety of desirable properties, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and their consumption has been linked to various positive health effects, such as a reduction in blood pressure and reduced incidence of stroke and cardiovascular diseases.

Unfortunately, some of the steps required to transform raw cocoa beans into a form that can be used in the production of delicious candy bars are known to alter the content of these compounds. After the pods are cut down from cocoa trees, they are split open and the beans are removed. These are then fermented for several days in banana-lined baskets before being dried in the sun and finally roasted. This roasting stage is critical to the flavor outcome of chocolate, but it also causes the beans to lose some of their polyphenols.

Armed with this knowledge, scientists from the University of Ghana set out to find a way of retaining these important compounds without negatively affecting its taste. They decided to start off by adding in another stage to the process, which involved storing the pods prior to fermentation. After testing out a range of conditions, the researchers found that storing them for 7 days prior to processing as normal resulted in the highest antioxidant content.

Next, the team decided to examine whether they could optimize the roasting process so that more polyphenols could be retained without sacrificing flavor. Traditionally, beans are roasted for between 10-20 minutes at 120-130oC, but they found that roasting at a lower temperature for 45 minutes improved the antioxidant activity of the beans. Furthermore, when this roasting technique was combined with the storage step, the beans had both increased antioxidant activity and a higher polyphenol content. Not only that, but the chocolate produced using this method was also sweeter.

The researchers believe that these positive effects are due to the fact that the storage stage allowed the beans to have more contact with the sweet surrounding pulp, which can alter the biochemical and physical properties of the beans. “This aided the fermentation process and enhanced antioxidant capacity of the beans, as well as the flavor,” notes lead researcher Emmanuel Afoakwa, adding that this technique could be particularly useful in countries where cocoa beans have a less intense flavor and lower antioxidant activity, such as in Latin America. Afoawka now plans to continue this work by further scrutinizing different storage and roasting techniques in order to optimize the process.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-work-out-how-make-chocolate-healthier-and-more-flavorful

Chocolate could PREVENT obesity: Scientists say antioxidant in cocoa stops weight gain and lowers blood sugar

Scientists say antioxidant in cocoa stops weight gain and lowers blood sugar

Flavanols in dark chocolate fight weight gain and lower the risk of diabetes

Dark chocolate is also thought to improve concentration, decrease appetite, lower blood pressure and boost heart health

By Emma Innes
It has long been maligned as a source of weight gain.
But chocolate could help prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
Scientists found that an antioxidant in cocoa can prevent weight gain and help lower blood sugar levels.
The researchers say there is also evidence to suggest eating dark chocolate can improve thinking, decrease appetite and lower blood pressure.
The latest study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, revealed that an antioxidant in cocoa can prevent mice from gaining weight and that it also lowered their blood sugar levels.
Dr Andrew Neilson and his colleagues explained this is because cocoa, the basic ingredient of chocolate, is one of the most flavanol-rich foods available.
This is good because antioxidants – of which flavanols are one type - have been shown to help fight weight gain and Type 2 diabetes.
However, not all flavanols are equally beneficial and cocoa contains many different ones.
So, the research team decided to try and establish the individual health benefits of the different flavanols.
The scientists fed groups of mice different diets, including high-fat and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplemented with different kinds of flavanols.

They found that adding one particular set of these compounds, known as oligomeric procyanidins (PCs), to the food made the biggest difference in keeping the mice's weight down if they were on high-fat diets.

They also improved glucose tolerance, which could potentially help prevent Type 2 diabetes.
‘Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest anti-obesity and anti-diabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study,’ the researchers say.
The news comes just after scientists at Louisiana State University released finding which show dark chocolate can reduce blood pressure and improve heart health.

 

 

• SHARE PICTURE

Copy link to paste in your message

 

Chocolate contains flavanols - a type of antioxidant - that help to lower blood sugar levels. They also help fight weight gain. Previous studies have shown dark chocolate can lower blood pressure and improve heart health

The researchers say dark chocolate is beneficial because of the way our guts ferment the fibre in cocoa beans.
Researcher Maria Moore said: 'We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the “good” ones and the “bad” ones.
'The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast on chocolate.
'When you eat dark chocolate, they grow and ferment it, producing compounds that are anti-inflammatory.'
This naturally forming anti-inflammatory enters the bloodstream and helps protest the heart and arteries from damage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2595990/Chocolate-PREVENT-obesity-Scientists-say-antioxidant-cocoa-stops-weight-gain-lowers-blood-sugar.html

113 Year Old Man Credits These 5 Foods for His Long Life

In 2014, Bernardo LaPallo of Arizona turned 113. He was born in Brazil in 1901 and saw the world gradually change. He continued to follow his father’s lifestyle advice and didn’t blindly accept the new, potentially harmful, ways of living. Some have disputed his age claims, but most agree that Mr. LaPallo is likely to be over 100 years old and has a lot of valuable information to pass on.

Bernardo comes from a family of centenarians. Yet, he believes his longevity should be accredited more to his lifestyle choices than to his genes. His father was a doctor and an herbalist and advised him what to eat if he wants to stay healthy. Mr. LaPallo himself was very interested in nutrition and even studied the culinary arts at the famous Sorbonne University in Paris.

Bernardo is still able to look after himself independently and does a walk every day. He also makes sure that he stays mentally agile by reading and doing crosswords (and you can find here more ways to improve your brain function naturally to slow age-associated cognitive decline and improve overall brain function). He’s a sought-after public speaker and a writer and holds a conversation in a very alert and engaging way you wouldn’t necessarily expect for somebody his age.

Mr. LaPallo enjoys a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables, and he avoids red meats and processed foods. These are the five foods he holds in high esteem and believes have helped him stay healthy and active:

1. Garlic: well known for its medicinal properties that are attributed to the sulphur compounds it contains called allicin.This substance is the most prominent one and gives garlic its distinct smell. Garlic has been used for centuries to help lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol, prevent heart diseases and arthrosclerosis and it works in an anti-cancer way. For maximum benefits, eat it raw.

Further reading: read more about garlic in my previous articles how to use garlic as a medicine and avoid these 6 common mistakes when using garlic as an antibiotic. Also read about this research that found a link between eating garlic to a reduced risk of lung cancer.

2. Honey: raw honey is one of nature’s superfoods. It abounds in anti-oxidants and helps your body stay alkaline, which wards off different diseases. Honey is most famous as a healthy, natural sweetener and a remedy, but it can also be used externally, in facial and body masks that promote skin health and youthful appearance.

Further reading: find here 13 ways to use honey for your health, as well as how to make golden honey mixture which is a strong natural antibiotic.

3. Chocolate: dark chocolate with high cocoa content (at least 70%) can be very good for you when consumed in moderation. It’s rich in anti-oxidants and prevents cardiovascular disease by lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, increasing the blood flow and reducing stress. While I couldn’t find a general daily intake recommendation for dark chocolate, it is apparent that it takes very little to make a positive change in health.

Further reading: read my article how to use dark chocolate as a medicine, or if you prefer to consume raw cocoa powder, you can find here how to incorporate it into your daily nutrition.

4. Cinnamon: Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka is especially known for its medicinal effects (its counterpart from China and Vietnam – Cassia cinnamon – is less healthy and is cheaper). Cinnamon lowers blood sugar and cholesterol, treats inflammation and yeast infections and helps with digestion.

Further reading: read my article how to use cinnamon as a medicine and how to tell the difference between the cinnamon types.

5. Olive oil: this Mediterranean treat is a good source of healthy oils, as long as you don’t heat it up. It’s high in monounsaturated fats and reduces the risk of heart disease. Extra virgin olive oil is the type that boosts most health effects, so should be your preferred option.

Further reading: read my article how to use olive oil as a medicine as well as what to do with its leaves which  also have many medicinal uses.

Which foods would top your list for their health benefits? I guess it’s hard to narrow it down to only 5 foods…

http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/113-year-old-man-credits-5-foods-long-life/

Dark Chocolate Could Improve Memory By 25%, But You’d Have to Eat Seven Bars a Day

For years, scientists have been trying to prove that chocolate is good for us. The idea was based on more than the desires of a sweet-toothed scientist—cocoa is high in antioxidants known as flavanols. But proving those hypothetical health benefits hasn’t been easy.

Now, there’s new evidence to suggest that chocolate dramatically improves the memory skills that people lose with age. When healthy people between the ages of 50 and 69 drank a mixture high in cocoa flavanols for three months, they performed about 25% better on a memory test compared to a control group of participants.

Dr. Scott A. Small, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center, led the study, which was funded by the chocolate company Mars, the National Institutes of Health, and two other research foundations. The results were published yesterday in Nature Neuroscience.

When healthy people ages 50 to 69 drank a mixture high in cocoa flavanols for three months, they performed about 25% better on a memory test.

Here’s Pam Belluck, writing for The New York Times:

The findings support recent research linking flavanols, especially epicatechin, to improved blood circulation, heart health and memory in mice, snails and humans. But experts said the new study, although involving only 37 participants and partly funded by Mars Inc., the chocolate company, goes further and was a well-controlled, randomized trial led by experienced researchers.

Besides improvements on the memory test — a pattern recognition test involving the kind of skill used in remembering where you parked the car or recalling the face of someone you just met — researchers found increased function in an area of the brain’s hippocampus called the dentate gyrus, which has been linked to this type of memory.

While the study supports the idea that cocoa flavanols help reverse age-related memory decline, it probably won’t ward off Alzheimer’s. The participants didn’t show any marked difference in the functioning of the entorhinal cortex, which is impaired in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The distinction shows that age-related and Alzheimer’s-related memory loss are not the same thing, and that flavanols won’t have an effect on cognitive disease.

Even if you don’t have Alzheimer’s, though, binging on any old chocolate this Halloween will help you remember where you left your keys. Milk chocolate won’t help since processing usually removes the key flanvanol epicatechin. Eating dark chocolate may not help much, either. To ingest the same amount of epicatechin as the study group, you’d have to consume the equivalent of about seven average-sized bars a day, which would probably invite other health problems.

Experts have other qualms about the study, including whether or not participants’ overall diet was account for, but the new study is at least a step forward in understanding dark chocolate’s rich rewards.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/seven-bars-dark-chocolate-improve-memory-25/

How to Use Dark Chocolate as a Medicine

Some medical claims sound too good to be true, but as it turns out – you really can use chocolate dark chocolate as a medicine. Turn out, dark chocolate is full of nutrients and loaded with health benefits.


Dark Chocolate as A Natural Medicine

1. Dark Chocolate Makes You Smarter:
It’s true. Studies have shown that those who consume a nice hot cup of hot chocolate in the evenings before bed have over time improved brain function. It does this by increasing the blood flow in your brain and your heart, which instantly improves your cognitive function.

2. Dark Chocolate Gives You Youth:
High in anti-oxidants, dark chocolate helps combat the radical cell damage caused by toxins and free radical activity through aging. Stay young and healthy by eating chocolate.

3. Dark Chocolate is Excellent for The Heart:
Studies have shown that those who do indulge in eating dark chocolate have lower blood pressure, improved blood flow and have a smaller risk of blood clots. Strengthen your heart by eating dark chocolate 3 times a week.

4. Dark Chocolate Improves Your Mood:
Chocolate has been proven to put you in a better mood, make you calmer and feel more relaxed. Which is just as important as any other health benefit. Now you know why you want chocolate when you’re stressed or in despair.

5. Dark Chocolate is a Vitamin Source:
Chocolate contains some great vitamins and minerals that support good health. This list includes: potassium, copper, magnesium, iron. All of which are in high concentrations to provide you with the protection against such things as: stroke, anemia, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

6. Reduce Your Cholesterol:
Regular consumption of dark chocolate may reduce your cholesterol. Its antioxidants protect oxidation of LDL cholesterol and prevents artery damage.

7. Hot Raw Chocolate For A Cough:
Chocolate contains theobromine which soothes a cough and has a similar effect to codeine. So try a hot cup of almond milk and raw cocoa when you have a cough.

8. Lower Your Blood Pressure:
Flavanols help your arteries to relax, which lowers blood flow and blood pressure.

9. Reduce Stress Levels:
Dark chocolate contains magnesium, which gives us a happy, feel good vibe and lifts our spirit. And there is more – compounds found in dark chocolate lower cortisol levels to relax body and mind.

10. Dark Chocolate Protects Your Skin
Flavonoids in dark chocolate protect your skin from UV damage. But don´t see it as your new sunscreen, you still need that when going out in the sun.

11. Natural Painkiller
Chocolate stimulates our body to produce calming and pain relieving endorphins.

Health coach Amy Goodrich goes on to say, “…don’t get me wrong here… although there are plenty of health benefits, chocolate is unfortunately also high in calories coming from fat and sugar. So don’t swap all your veggie and fruit snacks with chocolate. Like with many things in life, moderation is the key here.”

http://naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/how-to-use-dark-chocolate-as-a-medicine/