Be more healthy - eat
more chocolate
Chocolate was seen
as a cure-all
From before the Spanish Conquest, cocoa
and chocolate have been prescribed by
doctors for a dizzying array of totally
unrelated ailments and diseases, everything
from dysentery (dissolve cocoa in water
with a pinch of ground bones of your
ancestors, as taken by the Aztecs) to “decayed
health, weak lungs or scorbutic (relating
to scurvy) tendencies” for which
J.S. Fry & Son’s chocolate
was recommended in the 1820s.
Of
course chocolate is no longer prescribed
by doctors, it’s not regarded as ‘medicinal’ or
lauded as a universal panacea as it once
was and you are unlikely to hear it described
anymore as “a holy
thing for many ills, pains and sores” (16th
C. navigator Fernando de Oviedo) or as a “pleasant
and nutritious substitute for food when
traveling” (Butter’s
Medical Directory,1826).
Chocolate now is more likely to be talked
about as contributing to health problems
such as diabetes and heart disease,
it’s
more likely to be associated with being
overweight, a cause of acne, a trigger
of migraines and the ruin of many a child’s
teeth and appetite. But does chocolate
deserve all this bad press?
Because after
all..
About 70% of the world’s population
(that’s 4,442,595,321 people, yes
I counted) can’t drink milk or
eat dairy products without their intestines
seizing up on route to the bathroom with
diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Lactose
intolerant people are deficient in lactase,
needed to properly digest milk, but their
condition is often left undiagnosed or
worse, misdiagnosed as serious bowel
disease.
Cue chocolate
Added to milk, chocolate helps counteract
lactose intolerance and can actually
block the cramping and bloating experienced
by sufferers. How? Well chocolate appears
to be a great enzyme stimulator. In tests
carried out by Dr C. Lee, professor of
food science and nutrition at the University
of Rhode Island, cocoa increased lactase
activity by a staggering 500-600%.
So
if straight milk gives you wind, diarrhoea
and other unmentionables, try: Dr Lee’s
recipe for chocolate milk: Stir 1½ tsp
of pure cocoa and a little sugar into
a mug of milk.
The way to a healthy heart
Chocolate isn’t just good news
for your bowels; “New research
indicates chocolate, eaten in moderation
as part of a healthy diet, can reduce
blood clots and lessen the risk of heart
disease and strokes.” (From an
article in the New Zealand press, 25
Sept 1999)
For this discovery we have to thank
volunteers in an Australian university
study who selflessly ate 100g of milk
chocolate bars every day for three
weeks in the name of research. The astonishing
results showed that the white blood cells
(which initiate blood clotting) were
less active in the chocolate-eaters than
in the volunteers who stayed on normal
or alternative-snack diets.
Bizarre but true? Next >>>
© 2004 Chris Chung & seventypercent.com
