Dark Chocolate Chips - The New Health Food

Bitter is best but there is a difference between the many brand names of Dark Chocolate. It really doesn’t have to be all that expensive. Beware of those big name brands claiming to be dark chocolate. Many are loaded with milk, sugar or condensed milk which may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants. "White chocolate" contains cocoa butter, sugar and milk but no cocoa solids—in other words, zero antioxidants. Like yogurt, "dark chocolate" is not always the healthy kind you should be eating. A recent visit to the supermarket revealed a 6 ounce container of yogurt with 41g of sugar. Dannon "Light and Fit" has 6 ounces of yogurt with active cultures including acidophilus, 240mg of potassium and contains 20 percent Vitamin D and Riboflavin, Calcium and 10% Vitamin B12 and Vitamin A with 0% Fat, 0% Added Sugar and only 60 calories. My nutritionist had advised me to use this brand after a stay in the hospital revealed high triglycerides. She was right then and 30 years later the advice is still a brand name I respect. The nonfat yogurt is the real thing — read the labels. You really can’t judge a book by its cover.
Back to "Dark Chocolate," the daily allowance is 1.6 ounces or 50 dark chocolate chips. We have found a brand name available at Aldi’s stores called Moser Roth with 5 bars at .88 ounces ea. and the serving size is 2 bars at (50g). Each bar contains about 6.5 g of sugar. The Dark Chocolate is imported from Germany and information is available at http://www.aldi.com/ . The daily value of dietary fiber in the serving represents 12% or 3g. and 15% Calcium. Now how can you beat that source for these vitamins as compared to expensive pill-supplements? The best South American cocoa is used in this sophisticated gourmet chocolate. The percentage of Cocoa is 70% which provides increased blood flow to the brain according to research.
At any age, recent studies have shown dark chocolate may: 1) Lower blood pressure by dilating blood vessels. 2) Reduce the risk of diabetes by reducing blood sugar and insulin. 3) Activate enzymes that eliminate cancer-causing carcinogens and mutagens. 4) Reduce the risk of blood clots and strokes by inhibiting the clumping of blood platelets. 5) Keep cholesterol levels stable or even slightly improve them. 6) Enhance cognitive function by increasing blood flow to the brain. Now you choose your poison — I’ll take the dark chocolate — please!
More Antioxidants - many foods – notably fruits and vegetables — are rich in antioxidants, which mop up molecules in the body that damage cells and hasten aging and disease. Winner: Dark Chocolate; Runner Up: Pecans (14 percent less than winner); Crowd Pleaser: glass of red wine (25% less than winner).
Bitter Is Best: Cocoa beans are processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The solids contain the antioxidants. The higher the percentage of cocoa content listed on a wrapper, the more antioxidants (Moser Roth states 70% Cocoa).
The purest commercial varieties, like unsweetened baking chocolate, taste bitter, which means that most chocolate consumed contains sugar. Most ingredients added to chocolate raise its caloric and fat content and lower its antioxidants. Milk chocolate also contains milk powder or condensed milk, which may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants.
The cocoa plant is indigenous to South America’s Amazon region. The Maya first cultivated its beans 1800 years ago. Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes introduced cocoa to Europe in 1528. The plant made its way to Africa and Asia. Today Ivory Coast Ghana and Indonesia supply more than 70 percent of the world’s 8.2 million ton annual cocoa bean harvest.

Tea For the Heart, Immune and Nervous System

Tea Tips Take Front Stage
As a young grade-school boy, my eighth grade teacher envisioned a day when we would be looking at a plate with a pill to carve up for the evening dinner. Well, it almost came to that when people over 50 started downing 20 pills a day and prescription pads were part of the menu.
Wouldn’t it be great if medicine really did taste good and produced outstanding results in keeping you healthy? That’s what I found as my research led me to realize that the greatest pharmacist in existence is nature or God. Fresh fruits and vegetables are basking in the vitamin D of the sun and putting together all the nutrients we need to maintain our bodies. The power of a great tasting beverage is recently being given its due. Is it any wonder that it is the most popular beverage in the world? The Chinese and Japanese and the powerful English influence have spread and we are just learning why they live longer, happier and healthier lives. Only water ranks higher in global consumption. Yet the country with more cancer that all the world put together favors caffeine-loaded coffee over a spot of tea. Thanks to my lovely wife and her English mother, I have come to savor that special beverage with meals and at bedtime.
These days, more health-conscious Americans are turning to tea, and with good reason. In the past decade, (not a long time) hundreds of studies have demonstrated its health-promoting and disease-preventing powers. Tea is rich in polyphenols, natural plant compounds with potent antibacterial and antiviral properties. The polyphenols in tea also serve as powerful antioxidants. In the body, they help to neutralize the free radicals — high energy molecules that contribute to the development of a number of deadly diseases, including cancer.
When researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine applied EGC (a compound called epigallocatechin gallate) to healthy and cancerous mouse cells, they found that the agent helped wipe out the cancer cells without harming the healthy ones.
Harvard scientists reported that the EGCg in tea has protective powers against cancers of the digestive tract. The researchers concluded that EGCg triggers the production of proteins that can repair DNA damage before it leads to cancerous changes in the esophagus or stomach.
In a study published in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers reported that women who drink more than two cups per day had a 45 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer compared to women who never drank tea.
A growing body of evidence shows that drinking tea is good for your heart. In a study conducted at Boston University, researchers asked 50 men and women diagnosed with heart disease to drink four cups of black tea daily for four weeks.
Just two hours after downing the first cup, investigators found that drinking tea promoted widening of the subjects’ arteries and significantly improved their blood flow. Both actions have beneficial effects on the heart.
In addition to warding off cancer and heart disease, tea may boost the protective powers of the immune system. Drinking tea increases production of interferon, a substance known to play a key role in protecting the body against infection.
When researchers at Harvard Medical Center asked adult volunteers to drink five cups of black tea each day for four weeks, they found their blood cells secreted five times more interferon than before they began drinking tea.
In March 2008, Egyptian scientists reported that green tea can help beat drug-resistant superbugs. Natural compounds in the beverage dramatically boost the action of antibiotics, making them up to three times more effective at killing disease-causing bacteria.
Drinking tea has long been associated with relaxation, and now there’s scientific proof. In the Medical Journal of Psychopharmacology, British researchers reported that regular consumption of tea helps individuals recover more quickly from the regular stress of everyday life.
The results of the study demonstrated that drinking tea not only helps normalize stress hormones in the body, it can lower stress-related rises in blood pressure and heart rate.
The next time you have a coffee break, you might want to consider having a cup of tea instead. Fresh lemon and a little honey have special benefits as well. I bring my own fresh lemon - just in case the restaurant serves me a sliver, instead of a wedge of lemon.