is chocolate healthy for me? · that have more real chocolate inside than milk, sugar, added fats...
TRANSCRIPT
Page 18 Friday, May 4, 2012 Longboat Key News
different substances in most foods. Have their effects been characterized? No. Do we know what happens when they’re put together as cuisines? Biologically, not much, though some diets — numerous foods with many thousands of different ingredients ingested more or less regularly — are clearly associated with long-lived populations.
Is chocolate good for the heart?It certainly dilates arteries, cuts platelet aggregation,
and does other stuff that make people want to believe it’s good for the heart. Long-term epidemiologic studies are not so conclusive, however.
And it’s hard to study, particularly long term. Different food forms of chocolate have rather different effects.
Can I get addicted to chocolate?Many people claim they already are. They can’t stay
away from the stuff. They have to have it. When placed in their path, they can’t stop until all the chocolate around them is consumed.
Is it the flavanoids and theobromine to which people get this addiction response? Many researchers and clini-cians would argue it’s a combination of intense culinary pleasure and large amounts of sugar and fat that does the trick, though alkaloid stimulation may play its part,
MATTHEW EDLUND M.D.Contributing [email protected]
StayingAlive
Is chocolate healthy for me?
Is chocolate truly healthy?Is what some Aztecs considered the “food of the gods”
capable of making you live long and well? The answer so far is “definitely maybe.” Like coffee, tea and alco-hol, chocolate is a food-drug that has been around for thousands of years. It can do much for you — both well and ill.
Can chocolate make me thin?
If you read BBC News, you might think so. A new study out of UC San Diego by Beatrice Golomb and others (yes, folks, I did train there for a while) argued that regularly exercising folks who ate chocolate regularly — not intermittently — had lower body mass indices. Very curiously, the amount consumed did not seem to affect weight.
Other researchers site a host of methodology issues — including volunteer bias and poor recall — as explaining these results.
Is chocolate a drug?Actually, multiple drugs. The plant is not called theo-
broma for nothing. Theobromine is a stimulative alkaloid that does much of what caffeine does — in fact, it’s a metabolite of caffeine. And there’s lots of polyphenols and flavanoids inside pure chocolate, which makes many confectioners salivate wildly when they contem-plate selling chocolate as a health food.
In the past, chocolate was used as an aphrodisiac, even to treat some of the ravages of syphilis.
However, adding sugar and various fats to chocolate complicates the picture greatly. Every form of ingested chocolate is in effect a different type of drug with differ-ent information for the body.
And foods are more complicated sources of infor-mation than people think. It’s not just carbohydrates and calories. There are hundreds, often thousands, of
as it does for coffee.
What can I do to enjoy chocolate healthily?Use it the way people use other food-drugs, like cof-
fee and tea. It makes sense to see chocolate as part of that great cultural in-gathering and socially supportive engagement we call dining.
Chocolate is a food that is delicious, deeply flavorful and highly prized. It’s also a drug that can stimulate you and make you feel up and energized.
So enjoy it with friends. View it as a treat. Use forms that have more real chocolate inside than milk, sugar, added fats and petrochemically laced colors. Since most chocolates we eat have lots of that other stuff, dine on it sparingly, savoring every mouthful.
And remember, revolutions were sparked by thought-ful friends gathering together in coffee houses to think and debate. Most of those coffeehouses also served chocolate. Was chocolate one of the pillars of the Enlightenment that swept 18th century Europe and North America? It wouldn’t be so bad if helped sparked some needed political reform in our day.
And chocolate is hard to grow. West African sources are both politically and ecologically endangered. Think of that, climate change skeptics, the next time you reach for a bar of chocolate.
LBKN Special
Cortez Bait & Seafood Fresher than Fresh!
Local Florida SeafoodOysters • Shrimp • Clams
Fish Spread • Smoked MulletTues-Sat: 10 AM to 6 PM • Sun-Mon: 11AM to 6 PM
Located 2 blocks south of Cortez Road 941.794.1547CortezSeafoodMarket.com
4528 119th St. West, Cortez
Bountiful Breakfast & Lunch
OPEN MONDAY-SUNDAY6 AM TO 2 PM
941.792.0030VOTED BEST BREAKFAST!
12108 CORTEZ ROAD WEST 5 MINUTES FROM LBK!DINE IN OR CARRY OUT
DAILY SPECIALS
CORTEZ CAFE
941.798.9404The Ultimate Florida Seafood Connection!
4528 119th St. W., Cortez, FL • OPEN 7 DAYS
Gourmet Ice CreamMade on site since 1984
Open 7 days a weekHOMEMADE ICE CREAM • SORBETS
SOFT SERVE • SUGAR FREE11904 Cortez Road West • Cortez • (941) 794-5333
941-794-2802
80 Ton Travel Lift
Bottom Paint Specialists
Surveys • Underwater Salvage
Fiberglass Repair • Buff & Wax
Engine Maintenance
& Much More!
www.taylorboatworks.com
Channel Depth: 6’ at Zero Tide
4628 119th St. W.
ICW Marker 49
MAKE ONE STOP TO SHOP FOR THE DOCK
MARINE DOCKTOR
• Jet Ski Lifts & Boat Lifts• Remote Controls• Stainless Motors• Cables & Switches
• Dock Accessories• Piling Cones• Aluminum Ladders• Bumper Strips
SALES / SERVICE / SUPPLIES & MUCH MORE
12044 CORTEZ ROAD WEST • (941) [email protected]
4528 119th Street West |Cortez | FL
In Historic Cortez Village
• Waterfront dining• Fresh local seafood• Entertainment
www.swordfi shgrillcortez.com
Happy Hour DAILY
4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
941.798.2035
Great Food!Live Music!Open 4:30 PM to CloseClosed Tuesdays
12012 Cortez Road W. in Cortez • 941.792 .4822
EDLUND