At first Dr Shock was baffled. Mixing precious chocolate with chemicals? What a waste. Apparently cocoa has about 52 mg of GABA per 100 gram cacao. GABA is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain and it has been shown to have an acute psychological stress-reducing effect in humans and a tranquilizing effect on sleeplessness, depression and autonomic disorder observed during the menopausal or presenile period. Because cacao is mixed with milk, sugar and some other ingredients the quantity if GABA in chocolate is less than in cacao, possibly reducing the stress reducing effects in human. In a recent study, they .....read more »

As you probably know is Dr Shock completely biased when writing about chocolate especially dark chocolate. He mostly writes about the research with positive results of chocolate on cardiovascular diseases. A recent review included 5 studies of adequate quality for inclusion in a recent meta analysis as well as 8 other peer reviewed studies for the effect of cocoa on blood pressure. In these 13 reports dark chocolate lowered blood pressure in 6 of the 7 open label studies but diastolic blood pressure only in 1 of 6 double blind studies and as you know double blind studies are the .....read more »

From a systematic review of 10 randomized clinical trials: chocolate has blood pressure lowering capacity. Dark chocolate has a high content of flavanols. Flavonoids are the part of chocolate important for health benefits. They can also be found in high concentrations in certain fruits and vegetables. In the context of human nutrition, certain teas, grape juice, wine, various berries, and especially cocoa represent noteworthy sources. Dark chocolate has the highest content of flavonoids compared to the other sources. Besides lowering the blood pressure chocolate containing flavonols also has other cardioprotective properties. On average over all trials chocolate reduced blood pressure. Systolic .....read more »

40 grams of dark chocolate per day reduces the urinary excretion of the stress hormone cortisol and it almost normalizes the stress related differences in energy metabolism and gut microbial activities between participants with low and high anxiety traits. You are what you eat, it has been described how dietary preferences is associated with metabolic processes in healthy subjects. How does dark chocolate, by some considered to be a very healthy, affect the human metabolism? A number of studies have shown cardiovascular benefits of eating flavanol rich cocoa. In a recent post I discussed the possible underlying mechanisms of these cardioprotective .....read more »

Last year had a post about Pi day and irrational numbers and about the beauty of pi and chocolate. Ordered a chocolate Pi but couldn't find one this year, anyone? Why? Watch the video and see if you can resist. Related posts:Pi-Day and Irrational Numbers How Much Chocolate Do We Eat? 100 Best Websites for Chocolate Fanatics ..read more »

Nutrition had a very nice and comprehensive editorial on the essence of chocolate. It mentions the recently discovered profitable effects of chocolate on the human physiology often mentioned on this blog. In short: Reduction of blood pressure by 6 grams of dark chocolate per day. Probably due to the flavonol epicatechin Reduction of platelet and endothelial cell activation Reduction of inflammatory mediators It can also inhibit oral caries It can cross the blood brain barrier and increase cerebral blood flow in humans Rightly the authors question the effects of chocolate on mood and it's possible addictive potential. As written before on this blog, chocolate is not an .....read more »

From the graphic above and down under you can see for each country how much chocolate per person per year (2007) was consumed in kilos. Found this graphic on the site of Alpha Galileo Europe's site of research news, thanks to David Bradley (@sciencebase). Eighteen EU countries were among the world's top 26 chocolate confectioneries consumers in 2007, ranking from 11.85 kg eaten per capita in Ireland, to 4.5 kg in France and 1.04 kg in Poland. The EU 27 consumed in total 2.5 million tons of chocolate products that year, which account for around half of the global consumption .....read more »

Sinterklaas and Saint Nicolas in French, is a holiday tradition in the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas’ eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children. Special candy is made for this event such as chocolate characters and pepernoten. These chocolate characters come in all varieties and all kinds of chocolate. Dr Shock prefers the dark chocolate type. But he sure likes fair trade dark chocolate, because: Cocoa is an important world commodity, produced and consumed around the globe. However, .....read more »

About chocolate craving: Research suggests that up to 97% of women and 68% of men experience food cravings. Chocolate is the most common one of the craved foods, typically high calorie. A number of situations have been shown to experimentally increase cravings of chocolate consumption. For example,chocolate abstinence, stress and exposure to chocolate cues increase urges to eat chocolate. A 15 min bout of brisk walking, equivalent to ‘fairly light’ intensity exercise, reduces chocolate cravings, with moderate effect sizes, during and for at least 10 min following exercise cessation. Higher intensity or longer bouts of physical activity may lead to compensatory dietary behavior and/or .....read more »

From 7 until 22 November, Amsterdam will be the center for chocoholics. It will be the chocolate capital of the world. Participating restaurants will have menus with chocolate, there will be chocolate workshops, chocolate high tea and much more. Have a look at the website: http://www.choca.nu (in Dutch). [gallery] Related posts:9 Eating Highlights in Amsterdam The Truth About Amsterdam The Beauty of Pi and Chocolate ..read more »