JustCare

Tag: Chocolate

  • Chocoholic? Beware of lead and cadmium

    Chocoholic? Beware of lead and cadmium

    If you’re a chocolate lover like me, choosing a good chocolate bar is easier said than done. A new Consumer Reports study finds dangerously high levels of lead and cadmium in some dark chocolate. Here’s what you need to consider before buying your next bar.

    Dark chocolate has received a lot of attention because it offers health benefits. It contains relatively good amounts of magnesium and potassium, little sugar and its antioxidants, flavanols, can be good for your heart and cholesterol levels. But, it also contains lead and cadmium.

    Before I go on, please note that you will find lead and cadmium in many foods, both non-organic and organic, including sweet potatoes, spinach and carrots. It’s hard to get around eating foods with these toxic heavy metals. That said, if possible, you want to avoid foods with high levels of these metals.

    Significant exposure to cadmium can cause kidney, liver, and bone damage. Lead exposure can cause developmental disabilities in children and nervous system issues, as well as hypertension and kidney harm in adults.

    What to do? When it comes to chocolate, enjoy it, but choose brands with lower levels of these heavy metals. The federal government does not limit the amount of heavy metals in food. Try to avoid eating more than .5 micrograms of lead and 4.1 micrograms of cadmium a day. How does that translate?

    Eat dark chocolate from Mast, Taza, Valrhona and Ghirardelli, suggests Consumer Reports. Their chocolate has relatively little lead and cadmium. And, eat it sparingly. Switch it out with some milk chocolate, which contains less lead and cadmium than dark chocolate. But, eat milk chocolate sparingly as well, because it contains a lot of sugar.

    Which chocolate brands should you try to avoid eating? Consumer Reports found high levels of lead, cadmium or both in dark chocolate bars of Scharffenberger, Lindt, Dove, Tony’s, Chocolove and Trader Joe’s.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Does coffee, tea or chocolate improve your brain’s health

    Does coffee, tea or chocolate improve your brain’s health

    You may have read that the different phytochemicals in fruits can be good for your health, protecting you against cardiovascular disease and tumor growth, among other things. Coffee, tea and chocolate also contain phytochemicals. One recent study by the National Institute on Aging and Johns Hopkins University finds that these phytochemicals might improve your brain’s health.

    The study, published in Neurochemical Research magazine, and reported by Inc., finds that the phytochemical methylxanthines helps the brain, “protecting neurons against dysfunction and death” when examined in animals with stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Coffee, tea and chocolate all contain this phytochemical.

    A second phytochemical, xanthine metabolites, which is released after caffeine consumption, could also be beneficial to brain health.

    Separately, a meta-analysis of 11 studies, published in World Journal of Surgical Oncology, reveals that coffee and tea might reduce the risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and brain cancer. Specifically, the researchers found that “higher consumption of coffee may contribute to the lower development of brain cancer in Asian populations.”

    And, yet another major study at Okayama University found that chemicals in caffeine prevents neurodegeneration in the brain, making it more resilient.

    The good news is that coffee is the most common drink after water. The question becomes whether the possible benefits of caffeine for your brain health outweigh its risks. Coffee can be responsible for anxiety, insomnia, irritability, and panic attacks.

    According to the studies, you need to drink six or eight eight ounce cups of coffee a day to promote your brain health. Among other things, a good night’s sleep, which drinking too much caffeine may prevent, also promotes good health.

    You can replace the coffee with dark chocolate to get the requisite phytochemicals. But, you want to avoid sugar and keep your weight down as well!