Chocolate, Slimness and Health

Chocolate is recommended for health, is it for slimness? What kind of chocolate should I prefer, dark or milk? Can we be drugged to chocolate?

This study will answer these questions. But above all, if you care about slimness you will seek to reduce the proportion of sugar against cocoa in the choice of a product. Although cocoa is fat, it contains fatty acids beneficial to health.

History

Chocolate was bring to Europe by Cortes who introduced the king of Spain a exotic drink, the Xocolatl. The original name is very controversial (chocolatl, chicolatl) but no doubt that the Spaniards found chocolate in the Aztec culture.
Cocoa beans are harvested in Central America since at least 1100 years BC.
Beans were erased to produce a powder and used as a drink flavored with vanilla, or with pepper or other spices.

Production

It begins always the same way but then is diversified to produce different chocolates with also very different nutritional qualities.

• Beans are extracted from the pods of cocoa.
• Fermentation develops aromas.
• Beans are then crushed.
• Roasting at 140 ° releases aroma.
• Powder is turned into liquid pulp.
• The cocoa butter is separated from the body by pressure.
• The cocoa butter may be added then or not, depending on the type of chocolate.
• For dark chocolate, sugar is added in varying proportions, with cocoa butter.
• For milk chocolate, a part of sugar is relpalced by milk.
• White chocolate contains no cocoa but only milk and cocoa butter. Its properties to health are reduced.
• A conching phase improves the taste: chocolate is warmed 12 hours at 70°.
• Tempering follows conching. It improves the retention period by amending the state of crystalline compounds of cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter can be replaced by other vegetable fats, with an effect on health that is negative. To prevent them, you must refer to the label of traditional quality.

Compounds of cocoa

Apart from the sugar that added is in chocolate, cocoa and more specifically the cocoa butter has many rather beneficial compounds.

• Stearic acid. A saturated fatty acid but which does not increase bad cholesterol.
• Oleic acid. Fatty unsaturated acid.
• Phenylpropanoid acid.
• Theobromine (2%)
  Alkaloid methylxanthine. It stimulates the nervous system and has a mild but durable euphoric effect .
  It also has an effect against cough (it acts on the vagus nerve).
  It could have a mutagenic effect and therefore carcinogenic on the prostate.
• Flavonoids.
  Catechin (or catechol or epicatechin) is a powerful antioxidant. Found in tea and grapes as well. Flavonoids are anti-inflammatory.
• Phenylethylamine (0.05 micrograms)
  Neuro-transmitter, only a tiny part is still used by the body.
• Tryptophan.
  The amino acid precursor of serotonin, the hormone of sleep.
• Caffeine. Very low dose.
• Anandamide.
  Cannabinoid neurotransmitter close cannabis but in low quantities.
• Magnesium. High rate.
• Phosphorus.
• Iron.
• Vitamins A, B1, D, E.

Chocolate also contains lead, but in sufficiently small quantities to be eliminated by the body.

Benefits of chocolate for health

They have been established by numerous scientific studies.

• Cocoa helps cure diarrhea. It is used for this purpose in old American medicine by plants.
• They also were using chocolate paste for the stomach and against colds, coughs.
• The dark chocolate is good for blood circulation.
• It is anti-inflammatory.
• It reduces tension.
• It is anti-depressant.
• It is anti-caries: its compounds partially reduce the effect of sugar.
• Promotes healing.
• Effect against stomach ulcers.
• It has a low glycemic index (65).

A significant consumption of chocolate does not promote atherosclerosis.

The studies did not confirm the popular belief that chocolate promotes acne. But this effect can be linked to the consumption of sugars.

Is chocolate a drug?

Some compounds could promote a slight addiction, rather than an actual addiction. In fact he has a small and lasting euphoria effect, and this added to the pleasure of taste when it is good is incentive for consumption.
One can say that it stimulates the appetite without causing more addiction than cheese.

Conclusion

Dark chocolate is most useful to health while milk chocolate loses much of the benefits. In addition, the percentage of sugar also significantly alters its qualities.
Dark chocolate with 70% cocoa and cocoa butter added (with label) is the only one who really contributes to health. Except if quantities are consumed but an excessive intake of sugar and fat would be a factor in obesity although its fatty acids are not harmful.

Note that we should not give chocolate to animals, because their metabolism can not eliminate theobromine.

References

• Dark chocolate may lower blood pressure.
• Dark chocolate could help heart.
• Chocolate, the best food.

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