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The Chocolate Myth Factory - health claims of chocolate
Nutrition Action Healthletter, March, 2001 by Bonnie Liebman
"A number of studies from the 1950s and 1960s show that cocoa butter, the parent source of chocolate, raises blood cholesterol," says heart disease researcher William Connor of the Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland.
Of course, industry-funded studies have found that chocolate doesn't raise cholesterol as much as butter ... but that's no surprise, since butter has no stearic acid. When it comes to blood cholesterol, chocolate is closer to lard than to butter.
And just because stearic acid doesn't raise cholesterol doesn't mean that it's harmless. "Stearic acid may promote blood clots and increase the risk of heart disease in other ways," says Connor.
Blood clots, or thrombi, trigger most heart attacks and strokes. But no one knows how to test whether a food causes thrombosis. Researchers look at how readily platelets clump together in test tubes and at blood levels of "factors" that lead to clots. But what those indicators mean isn't clear.
"In humans, there aren't definitive experiments that show what causes thrombosis," explains Connor.
So it may turn out that half of chocolate's saturated fat is harmless. But we're not there yet. And what about chocolate's heart-sparing polyphenol antioxidants?
Last August, the Journal of Nutrition devoted an entire supplement to chocolate (it was sponsored by the UK branch of candy manufacturer Mars, Inc.). In one study, two hours after ten people ate almost four ounces (that's 560 calories' worth) of M&M's SemiSweet Chocolate Mini Baking Bits, blood levels of a flavonoid called epicatechin--and the blood's "antioxidant capacity"--rose dramatically. But both levels fell back to normal four hours later.(4)
Does four hours' worth of increased antioxidant capacity mean anything to your heart ... and is it worth 560 calories? It's too early to tell.
"That trashy supplement to the Journal of Nutrition should never have been published," says Connor. "While nothing in it isn't true, the implications are a disservice to the public." And, as with cancer, it's a leap to assume that antioxidants in the blood translate into fewer heart attacks. For example, in the only large study done in the U.S., researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found no lower risk of heart disease in men who consumed more flavonoids from their foods (they're mostly found in tea, wine, apples, and onions).(5)
"The evidence on flavonoids and heart disease isn't looking good," says researcher Alice Lichtenstein of the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tuffs University in Boston.
Myth #3 Eating chocolate doesn't make you fat.
"There is no scientific evidence that chocolate consumption is associated with obesity," declares Chocolate & Health, a brochure written by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association with "technical assistance" from the American Dietetic Association. (The ADA has received funding from the industry.) "No single food causes obesity or weight gain."
Truth: Of course no single food causes obesity or weight gain. Chocolate is one of many foods that have made the U.S. a contender for blubber capital of the world. Like any fatty food, it's calorie-dense--that is, it packs a lot of calories into a small volume.
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