Choose Your Chocolate Wisely

Since it's Easter, let's talk about chocolate. Cacao vs Cocoa

BACKGROUND:
The tree from which chocolate is derived is the cacao tree, otherwise known by its species name Theobroma cacao. After the cacao seeds (including the beans, which grow inside the seeds) are dried and fermented, they are known as cocoa. From this point, the beans can be processed into cocoa powder, cocoa butter, or chocolate.

So the tree is cacao, and cocoa is the substance made from the cacao tree. Elements of the cacao tree that have NOT been processed in the manner of cocoa remain cacao.

HEALTH BENEFITS:
There are over 711 identified nutrients and phytochemicals found in cocoa. Cocoa seeds are often considered a “superfruit” because of their nutrition content and they do have a higher ORAC score and flavanoid value compared to acai, blueberry, cranberry and grapes.

Historically, there have been over 150 medicinal uses of cacao, including many heart health benefits. Cultures that live near the equator have been using cocoa for its health benefits such as the Kuna Amerinds. Though they have a very high sodium diet, they don’t experience much high blood pressure. This may be attributed to the average of five cups of a cocoa beverage they consume every day, according to presenter Debra Miller, PhD, director of nutrition at the Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition.

Cocoa, the main ingredient of this beverage, contains powerful plant nutrients called flavanols which help cells that make up the inside lining of arteries produce nitric oxide which relaxes the arteries. This allows more blood flow to the heart and the rest of the body, which in turn lowers blood pressure.

More than 250 studies show that natural cocoa and dark chocolate have health benefits, and a recent meta-analysis of research supports that cocoa flavanols not only help lower blood pressure but may help manage cholesterol and improve insulin sensitivity, too. A study in the Netherlands showed that elderly men who consumed chocolate regularly had a 50% reduced risk of developing heart disease and a 47% reduced risk of dying from all causes.

Emerging research suggests that cocoa may also be beneficial in cognition and exercise recovery – especially when combined with milk. One study showed that athletes could do 27% more work after consuming chocolate milk and increased their time to exhaustion by 40%.

WARNINGS:
1) Depending on the product, chocolates can contribute a hefty calorie contribution if you’re not careful about portion sizes. An ounce a day is about the right amount.

2) Since not all chocolate is created equal, make sure to choose
--> a) the darker variety
--> b) one with a higher percentage of cacao (the higher “% cacao” the less added sugar it contains), and
--> c) one that has preferably NOT been alkalized/Dutch processed, which strips the chocolates of its healthy flavanols.

Why Even the Best Diets Don't Work ?

There are two main reasons why diets fail:

-1: The body has EXTREMELY potent anti-starvation mechanisms, developed over millions of years of being threatened by food scarcity. The body and brain will do everything they can to slow metabolism, retain fat stores and get you to eat more. Thing is, the last 200-300 years have brought about worldwide industrialization and the new problem of food excess, which ironically, now threatens the health of most individuals as much as starvation has for the past 6 or 7 million years.

Here's the rub- true biological adaptation to our environment is a sloooooow process. 300 years is nothing in terms of biological adaptation (what some might call evolution). Our bodies and brains are still wired to protect against weight loss, which appears to be regardless of how much we weigh. This point bears repeating- no matter how much we weigh, our bodies have extremely powerful anti-starvation mechanisms that will kick in immediately when we try to lose weight.

There is a caveat; these anti-starvation mechanisms kick in for obese people immediately (literally minutes) upon cutting caloric intake only if the individual has been obese for an extended period of time. That means that people who gain a lot of weight rapidly (eg, pregnant women) and then lose it rapidly will be able to do so relative ease. After a while (likely a year or more but depends on individual), however, these anti-starvation mechanism then get "reset" to the higher body weight and are triggered immediately when the individual begins to diet. Once that happens, weight loss becomes the perpetual struggle that most obese people are familiar with. It is not impossible but individuals in this situation must be prepared to work very hard and change habits for life. Changing habits for a little while and losing a little weight in this scenario will not work because the body will do everything it can to assist in regaining that weight.

-2: This brings us to the second reason why diets fail. Almost all diets have something in common- one way or another, they tell people not to eat certain things and encourage eating more of other things. The problem is, the certain things most diets tell us not to eat are the really delicious things that we love (pepperoni pizza, cheeseburgers, fries, hot fudge sundaes, etc) and the certain things most diets tell us to eat more of are typically not what we scientists would refer to as "hedonically pleasurable." Look at some of these diet recipes for crying out loud. When was the last time you heard anyone say, "I am dying for some zucchini casserole right now!"? And who wants to eat quinoa and chia seeds instead of pizza every day for the rest of their lives??? I certainly don't.

This is the concept behind Don't Just Diet. Through extensive cutting edge research on how the brain controls food intake, we have learned that palatable (delicious) food can be as rewarding to the brain as drugs or sex. Just like most people would not willingly trade walks in the park for sex for the rest of their lives, most are unwilling to sacrifice delicious foods for good (but not great) tasting foods. Therefore, we realized that, in order for people to maintain particular dietary habits for the rest of their lives, the foods must be as pleasurable to eat as the foods they are replacing.

Our mantra is that if the belly is not happy, the diet won't last. Period. What we actually mean is that if people adopt a diet that doesn't activate the same pleasure centers in the brain and to the same extent as does eating the foods they love, the diet will not last. Luckily, there is no need to worry about neural activation in response to food- that's our bag. All individuals need to worry about is making the foods they love to eat healthy and we are going to help.

See http://www.DontJustDiet.com for more!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Ochner