On the home page of this website, Diabetes Food List + Plus, we state our objective as being to provide information on foods and how they can fit into a diabetic meal plan and a diabetic lifestyle. Most diabetics already have had advice from their health care providers on what NOT to eat, what to avoid, probably such items as too many rich pastries and sugary beverages, and sweets and candies – except for a boost when an incident of low sugars occurs. I believe it when I’m told to keep away from the candy counter.
However, from time to time in the recent past, I’ve heard that chocolate can be good for you, usually referring to the 70% dark chocolate I believe, but I’ve never seen any authoritative sources from which to pin it down. Until now perhaps. In the September 01, 2011 edition of the diabetes newsletter I receive, I was almost shocked to see an article with the title More Research Showing Chocolate Good for the Heart and Brain. For me that’s a must read!
Wow! As a former lover of chocolate in my younger days before I was diagnosed as being a type-2 diabetic, about 20 years ago, it now looks like I’ve been missing out on a good thing, and even worse, all the while thinking I was being smart about it.
Chocolate lowers risks apparently
The ingredients in chocolate and cocoa appear to lower the risk of developing high blood pressure, inflammation, the formation of plaque on arterial walls, and the formation of blood clots that cause strokes. It was conjectured that polyphenols, a type of antioxidant found in cocoa products, may be responsible for the positive effects, and boosted by nitric oxide in the body that improves the function and pliability of blood vessel walls. It seems that working together, those factors provide especially positive results.
The investigators did not differentiate between the various types of chocolate available, all types were acceptable, dark, milk, or white chocolate. Chocolate of every sort was part of the mix.
Conclusions of the research into chocolate consumption
The article reported studies carried out in Britain. Researchers in the U.K., after analyzing seven earlier studies involving the results of individuals who regularly consumed chocolate, have concluded that eating chocolate can be beneficial in lowering the risk of cardiovascular and some other related health complications.
While first acknowledging that the over-consumption of chocolate and cocoa products can lead to harmful consequences, the conclusion reached by the British researcherswas that the existing studies generally confirmed that chocolate consumption lowered the risk of what they termed as “Cardiometabolic disorders”.
What are cardiometabolic disorders?
Cardiometabolic is an “umbrella” term to encompass several well known health conditions that include high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated triglycerides, low HDL (the “good” cholesterol), and other health problems frequently associated with obesity, and poor lifestyle choices such as tobacco smoking and physical inactivity. An estimated 47 million U.S residents fall into that category and are therefore at increased cardiometabolic risk, meaning increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
It seems the more chocolate that was consumed, within reason, provided the greatest amount of benefit, when compared with individuals who consumed the least amount of chocolate.
The reference attached to the article cited here was:
Presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2011 Congress, BMJ 2011; DOI:10.1136/bmj.d4488.
The article explaining the research, included the following summation.
“This beneficial association [of chocolate consumption] was significant for any cardiovascular disease (37% reduction), diabetes (31%), and stroke (29%), but no significant association was found in relation to heart failure”.
In conclusion — a caution
As is often the case, the study’s researchers added that further investigation into this matter is needed. However, if we don’t over-indulge, we who often seek a suitable diabetic snack to add to our diabetic food list may now feel more comfortable perhaps about “sneaking” the odd piece or two of chocolate, as I sometimes do, in fact, we may be encouraged to add chocolate to our diabetic food list now that it may be considered “legal” from the diabetic viewpoint.
Was it not Oscar Wilde who said something along the lines of “All the best things in life are either illegal, immoral, or fattening!”?
