Cocoa

[Frank Woolf]

For the Kuna Indians living on a group of islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama , hypertension doesn't exist. In fact, after age 60, the average blood pressure for Kuna Indian islanders is a perfect 110/70.


Is it because they eat less salt? No. Kuna Indians eat as much, if not moresalt, than the people of many nations.

It is not due to their genes because Kuna Indians who move away from the islands are just as likely to suffer from high blood pressure as anyone else.
So what makes these folks practically "immune" to hypertension and lets them enjoy much lower death rates from heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and cancer?

Studies show the flavonols in cocoa stimulate your body's production ofnitric oxide, boosting blood flow to your heart, brain, and other organs. In fact, one study found cocoa thins your blood just as well as low-dose aspirin!

A Harvard Medical School professor claims cocoa can also treat blocked arteries, congestive heart failure, stroke, dementia, even impotence!

[mikerauh]

Frank,

Can anyone point me to a description of exactly how the Kuna prepare their cocoa?

I visit Panama once a year or so. If I can't find this information on the web, I guess I could go and ask them how they do it.

Mike

[Frank Woolf]

I believe they take the ground beans with some sugar.

It would be great if you can get first hand info on exactly how they make it though.

This might be useful:

If we indulged in drinking that much of the cocoa found in supermarkets, we would quickly succumb to extra weight gain, pimples and zits and the possibility of heart attacks. What we think of as cocoa in the modern world is generally a processed powder pumped with sugar and stripped of goodness.

But the Kuna Indians are drinking the unadulterated, unstripped cocoa, its bitterness tempered by sugar. The secret compound is epicatechin. This is what Hollenberg believes is the element responsible for the exceptionally low incidences of heart disease, stroke, cancer or diabetes among the Kunas.

Epicatechin is a flavonoid that has been recently celebrated for its antioxidant properties. Food developers have latched onto it to launch a whole new line in drinks, promoting the way that flavonoids that are found in green tea and red wine can improve blood flow.

Well, you can bet that's about to change. Expect to find chocolate drinks jostling their way onto the shelves as the new health beverages. The epicatechin flavonoid is apparently found at much more concentrated levels in cocoa than in those drinks and other foods that boast of antioxidants. Professor Hollenberg thinks epicatechin is so important it should be reclassified as a vitamin.

You can't just reach for the sugary brown stuff you've got stored in the back of your pantry, however. You have to invest in pure cocoa powder. The trouble is, flavonoids are bitter. It's OK when you're drinking red wine and green tea, but not great in cocoa. So food-industry producers strip it off the cocoa bean, removing the protective property from mass-produced cocoa.

Professor Hollenberg has been studying the Kuna for 16 years. And he's found when they move from the San Blas Islands north of Panama, settle in the cities and drink the same cocoa drinks we drink, their levels of good health are no longer sustained.

He said that when he measured their cocoa consumption, he found the Kuna people had "probably the most flavonoid-rich diet of any population."

A senior researcher at Britain's Institute of Food Research, Dr. Paul Kroon, backs him up. "The science does look robust," he told the Sunday Times. "It is indicative that epicatechin is the active compound."

[mikerauh]

Here is a paper that gives quantitative values for epicatechin content of commercial cocoa powder.

Flavanol and Flavonol Contents of Cocoa Powder
Products: Influence of the Manufacturing Process
C. ANDRES-LACUEVA, et al., J. Agric. Food Chem. 2008, 56, 3111–3117

http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/scientific-research/research-library/documents/Andres-Lacueva2008.pdf

The paper finds "dutched" cocoa has about 60% less flavonol than the natural or un-dutched product.

Quantitative values for epicatechin content are given. The authors cite a reference reporting cocoa contains a higher content of flavonoids per serving than teas or red wine.