Spotlight on Nutrition: Chocolate for Your Heart

Happy February! This month, as the Valentine’s Day approaches, we are reminded to tell those closest to us we love them and show affection to those who deserve it. Consequently, this month brings with it a deluge of hearts and chocolate everywhere we go…

Heart Facts 

The cardiovascular system is amazing and deserves some recognition for all the hard work it does to keep you alive and thriving, most of the time without your awareness. Just think about it, from early in fetal development until the day you die, your heart beats continually and rhytmically, never taking a break! 

 

Just the FACTS 

  • The vascular system - arteries, veins and capillaries - is over 60,000 miles long, long enough to circle the earth more than twice!

  • The heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood per minutethroughout the body. That’s around 2,000 gallons of blood a day! 

  • The average heart beats about 100,000 times a day! That’s equivalent to more than 2.5 billion times in a 70-year life time!

  • An adult woman’s heart weighs about 8 ounces, a man’s about 10 ounces. 

  • A child’s heart is about the size of a clenched fist, an adult’s heart is the size of two fists. 

  • Blood is 78% water.

  • Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate the entire vascular system.

Facts About Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Since the heart and vessels work constantly to keep you alive, damage done by neglect can have significant consequences. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a collective term for cardiac disease, peripheral artery disease (PAD), or cerebrovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease can be congenital or develop from damage done to the heart and vessels over time. Here are some facts about CVD:

  • An estimated 80 million Americans have one or more types of CVD.

  • Every day, more than 2,400 Americans die of CVD - that’s one person every 37 seconds!

  • CVD costs Americans about $475 billion in direct and indirect health care costs. 

  • About 82% of people who die of coronary heart disease are under the age of 65. 

  • CVD claims more lives each year than the next five leading causes of death combined.   

Your heart and blood vessels do an incredible job of keeping you alive and well without your knowledge. Make sure to take care of your heart by exercising regularly and eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low in saturated fats. Remember to see your doctor regularly to make sure your heart is functioning in tip-top condition and that you are doing everything you can to keep your hard-working heart healthy throughout your lifetime.  


Heart Facts. Cleveland Clinic. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/heart-blood-vessels/heart-facts.aspx. 2014. 

Heart Disease Facts: Cost of Cardiovascular Disease. Rasmussen Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. 

http://www.cardiovasculardiseaseprevention.org/heart_disease_

facts.asp. 2014. 

 

Spotlight on Nutrition: 
Chocolate for Your Heart

  

Cacao, the Heart-Healthy Factor in Chocolate

Getting right to the point, cocoa is the ingredient in chocolate that touts the health benefits we are looking for. Forget about the milk-chocolate sissy stuff, full of milk fat and sugar, if it’s not 60% cocoa or higher, don’t try to make a case for taking it as your daily dose of antioxidants.

Cacao is a natural plant product and is full of polyphenols, particularly flavanols, which are molecules that have positive effects on the cardiovascular system. The processing of commercially available chocolate that involves roasting and alkalinization can destroy large portions of these protective molecules, therefore choosing raw cocoa powder and dark chocolate that have not undergone “Dutch processing,” to remove bitterness, will offer the most positive health benefits. 

When cacao is consumed, the concentration of flavanols and antioxidants in the blood plasma rise, reaching peak levels 2-3 hours following consumption. The method by which cacao exerts positive effects is debated, but the following are few ways cocoa benefits the cardiovascular system. 

Cacao’s Protective Effects on the Cardiovascular System

  • Endothelial Function and NO: The endothelium is the smooth inner surface of the body’s blood vessels that is highly selectively permeable (it only let’s very specific molecules into/out of the blood stream).  NO is nitroc oxide and acts as a vasodialator (it relaxes the smooth muscles of the blood vessels), and reduces the accumulation of  “debris” in the vessels. Endothelial dysfuntion is associated with cardiovascular disease and cacao is shown to improve endothelial function, even in those who already have coronary artery disease and even in smokers. 

“Of interest, drinking a flavonoid-enriched cacao beverage results in regional changes in cerebral blood flow and overall increased blood flow to gray matter for up to 3 hours as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, in elderly humans, cerebral blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery increases…suggesting that cacao flavanols may protect against dementia and stroke.” (Corti, Flammer, et. al.)

  • Antioxidant Properties: Flavanol-rich cacao reduces lipid peroxidation in the body, reducing levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol, and increasing overall antioxidant capacity. 

  • Platelet Funtion: cacao consumption has demonstrated decreased platelet aggregation effects and decreased platelet adhesion, similar to low-dose aspirin. Also, stearic acid, a saturated fat commonly found in chocolate, reduces platelet volume. Thus cacao has the effect of helping to prevent clots of thrombi in vasculature. 

  • Antihypertensive Effects: cacao intake has been found to be inversely related to mean systolic blood pressure, when other factors are adjusted for. Even small intakes (6g) of dark cocolate in the evening showed reduced mean systolic blood pressure. Some studies even found reduction in mean diastolic blood pressure with cacao intake. 

  • Other Protective Effects: Reduced insulin resistance and improvements in blood lipids (increased HDL cholesterol and decreased LDL cholesterol) have been seen in some studies. 

So What?

Some limitations exist as to the benefits of regularly consuming chocolate in the diet. Generally, commercially available chocolate is high in sugar and fat and has low cocoa content, leading to the opposite effects as seen above (causing weight gain, diabeties, dyslipidemia, hypertension, etc.) When looking to incorporate chocolate in the diet, look for high-levels of cacao that have not been processed with alkali.

Enjoy your chocolate the healthy way and treat your heart right!

Corti, Flammer, Hollenberg, Luscher. “Cocoa and Cardiovascular Health.” Circulation. 2009; 119: 1433-1441. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/119/10/1433.long

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