Cocoa

Cocoa Health Benefits

What many people don’t associate cocoa with are health benefits. The truth, however, is that cocoa actually has many proven health benefits and it is currently being studied to see just how beneficial cocoa might be for the everyday general health of the average person.

• The first thing that you need to understand is that cocoa is rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are antioxidants. What this means is that they fight the production of free radicals in the human body.
• Simply put, flavonoids can help to fight cancer. Studies show that flavonoids can actually increase the efficacy of certain cancer treatment chemo drugs.
• The benefit to this is that doctors can use less chemotherapy drugs at a time with the same efficacy as higher doses achieved in the past. Using less of these dangerous drugs reduces the speed at which toxicity occurs in the organs in the body. This allows doctors to apply these treatments longer with limited permanent damage danger to the patient.
• The biggest downfall of chemotherapy is that it sometimes can’t be used long enough to eradicate the cancer without killing the patient. Flavonoids allow doctors to treat their patients longer and increase the chances of sending the cancer into permanent remission.

It is important to note that the possible benefits of cocoa for the treatment of cancer are still being studied. But with its high flavonoid content, cocoa should provide at least some benefit.

Another area that cocoa can benefit the health is for diabetics. Before you go crazy saying that diabetics aren’t supposed to each chocolate, you need to remember that the original form of cocoa contains no sugar.

• After roasting and shelling the cocoa beans, chocolate can be formed. However, this substance is still quite a bit different than what you will find in your favorite chocolate product.
• Recent studies show that cocoa actually helps reduce the body’s resistance to insulin. This is an important discovery for people with both Type I Diabetes and Type II Diabetes. In fact, the consumption of cocoa has shown that it actually reduces the risk of developing diabetes in the first place!
• In some studies, cocoa reduced the levels of LDL cholesterol in consumers 50 and younger and increased their HDL cholesterol levels. This, in turn, reduces the risk of heart disease.

These initial human studies are promising. It will take a lot more research to determine just how beneficial cocoa will be in the long term, or if it can help people who are already facing heart disease and diabetes. Isn’t it nice to know that something as delicious as chocolate can be healthy as well?

Cocoa Harvesting

What’s interesting about cocoa is that this is one area that hasn’t been affected by deforestation. The way cocoa is harvested requires the pod that contains the cocoa beans to be picked off of the tree. It takes several years for a cocoa tree to actually produce cocoa, so it isn’t beneficial to simply cut down the trees for harvest.

Cocoa in Chocolate

You will find that many health food products contain cocoa; but, this isn’t because of the recent studies that show their health benefits. The reason that you see cocoa as a flavoring is because it can be used for people at any health and fitness level.

What this means is that at its core, cocoa is a fat free sugar free product. The other ingredients which are added to cocoa during production determine just how healthy or unhealthy it is. Supplement and health food companies know that they can use cocoa to create a chocolate flavor and, with the right ingredients, still produce something that is low in fat and calories as well.

Use our supplement finder to find great tasting supplements that use cocoa as a tasty addition!