Chocolate is simply an antioxidant

I like to “prescribe” food to my patients. Replacing processed foods with natural foods like meat, fruits, vegetables, berries and nuts is the best way to heal, cleanse and rejuvenate your body. That’s because food is the way to supply your body with vitamins and minerals naturally.

But the right kinds of food can help treat and prevent disease better than any drug ever could.

For example, did you know that you can eat chocolate to treat high blood pressure?

High blood pressure is a worldwide issue, not just in the United States. In fact, in a study published in The Lancet, Dr. Carlene Lawes and her team found that an astonishing 80 percent of deaths attributable to high blood pressure occurred in the developing world, not in industrialized nations.1

Chocolate has a full range of beneficial phytonutrients – plant compounds that have health-protecting qualities. These include antioxidants, flavonoids, phenols, and essential minerals which have been widely written about.

But despite what you may have heard, it’s not simply antioxidants in chocolate that protect your heart and lower your blood pressure. The secret to chocolate’s effect on blood pressure is a flavonol found in cocoa called epicatechin.

A study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that it’s epicatechin that relaxes your blood vessels, which contributes to lower blood pressure.2

And you don’t need much to get the effect. A new study finds that even low doses of epicatechin are heart-protective.3

It’s so powerful that Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said epicatechin should be classified as a vitamin.4

You may have heard of him. He spent years observing the Kuna people in Panama. They have a less than 10% chance of problems like high blood pressure, as well as stroke, diabetes, cancer and heart failure. What makes the Kuna different? They drink lots of cocoa. Up to 40 cups a week.

That’s not proof that cocoa prevents each of those individual diseases, but it’s enough to make you wonder.

Can you imagine a better way to reduce your blood pressure? But you can’t just eat ordinary candy bars. You have to make sure you eat the right type of chocolate.

One reason is that flavonols like epicatechin are usually removed for consumer chocolate because they taste bitter. That’s why dark chocolate is best. It has the highest percentage of cocoa, and will have the most epicatechin.

The other reason an average milk chocolate candy bar won’t do the job was discovered by Italian researchers. They found that milk interferes with the heart benefits of chocolate.5

Not only that, but ordinary chocolate bars have lots of sugar, or even high fructose corn syrup. And chocolate bars you can buy in the store have the wrong kinds of oils. If you look at the labels, you’ll see things like soy protein, which you want to stay away from.

My colleague, Victor Marchione, MD, has written a very interesting report in which he recommends using foods like chocolate as a first line of treatment. Dr. Marchione reveals his food “prescriptions” and describes other “functional foods” that can help treat your health issues naturally.

To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD