Chocolate: Food for the Gods - Letters to the Editor

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Oct, 2002  

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Editor:

Ralph W. Moss, PhD writes in the Townsend Letter in his June 2002 column "The War on Cancer" in "Chocolate: Food for the Gods" (page 33) that "[c]ocoa butter is mainly stearic triglyceride..."

Dr. Moss has been given incorrect information about the triglyceride composition of cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter is made up almost entirely of triglycerides with one double bond (~ 85 percent) or two double bonds (~ 15) percent). Only three of the triglyceride types are present at levels above 5% and they are POP (18-23%), POSt (36-41%), and StOSt (23-31%). POP is palmitic acid in the 1 and 3 positions and oleic acid in the 2 position. POSt is palmitic acid in the 1 position, oleic acid in the 2 position, and stearic acid in the 3 position. StOSt is stearic acid in the 1 and 3 positions and oleic acid in the 2 position. The characteristic melting behavior of cocoa butter is due to the high levels of these three triglyceride types that are 1,3-disaturated and 2-monounsaturated. Tristearin (stearic glyceride) has never been measured at more than 0.5 percent of the total fat in cocoa butter.

References for these statements include: (1) Fatty Acid and Lipid Chemistry by Frank Gunstone, Chapman & Hall (Blackie Academic & Professional, London) 1996; page 75 and (2) S. Chalseri and P.S. Dimick, Cocoa Butter - Its Composition and Properties (Paper no. 7685 in the Journal Series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station), The Manufacturing Confectioner, September 1987.

Mary G. Enig, PhD, FACN, LN, CNS Director, Nutritional Sciences Division

Enig Associates, Inc.

12501 Prosperity Drive, Suite 340, Silver Spring, Maryland 20904 USA

301-680-8600

Fax 301-680-8100

Author of Know Your Fats...

www.bethesdapress.com

Reply to Dr. Enig

Many authorities state that chocolate is high in stearic acid. For example, Dr. John Weisburger of the American Health Foundation, the author of over 300 Medline articles on nutrition, states that "fats from cocoa butter... are mainly stearic triglycerides."' Dr. Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Nutrition at Penn State University, also states that there is a "high proportion of stearic acid in milk chocolate." (2) Other scientists agree that cocoa butter is a fat "with a high stearic acid content." (3) In a recent email, Prof. Kris-Etherton wrote me, "You are correct in stating that cocoa butter is a rich source of stearic acid." (4) This seems to be in the conventionally accepted view of the question.

Ralph W. Moss, PhD

References

(1.) Weisburger JH. Chemopreventive effects of cocoa polyphenois on chronic diseases, Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2001 Nov; 226(10:891-7. Review.

(2.) Kris-Etherton PM, Mustad VA. Chocolate feeding studies: a novel approach for evaluating the plasma lipid effects of stearic acid. Am J Clin Nutr 1994 Dec;60(6 Suppl):1029S-1036S.

(3.) Denke MA and Grundy SM. Effects of fats high in stearic acid on lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in men, Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Dec; 54(6):1036-40.

(4.) Kris-Etherton PM. Personal communication. June 18, 2002.

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