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Benefits of taking cocoa powder and/or chocamine?
- Thread starter beefybull
- Start date
Found this on the net:
Take one bite and it’s easy to see why Americans love chocolate. And although it’s not exactly the featured item in food groups recommended most by health officials, researchers are now finding that the properties behind chocolate’s recently publicized health benefits may come from the plant that is used to make this treat.
Chocolate: A healthy food?
The idea that chocolate may offer health benefits is not such a novel concept. When Cortez first visited Central America, one of his first observations was the routine use of cacao, particularly by the high priests, for its stimulant and restorative properties. Cortez discovered that the Mexican Aztecs also enjoyed a type of bitter chocolate drink containing burned and ground cacao seeds, maize, water and spices, prepared for its energizing and mood stimulating effects. And historical documents in Europe refer to chocolate’s medicinal value.† Concerns about the sugar and dairy content of chocolate keep many people from enjoying its health benefits on a routine basis. Recognizing this, Nat-Trop introduced Chocamine™, a patent-pending dietary supplement that delivers the health benefits of chocolate without the sugar, fat and dairy of the candy. Chocamine™ contains the naturally occurring components of the cacao seeds in a standardized powdered extract.
What ’s so special about the cacao seed? Cacao seeds are a natural source of theobromine – considered a mild stimulant – plus they contain constituents called flavonoids, or more specifically catechins, that function as antioxidants. Cacao seeds are one of the richest flavonoid-containing foods available. The cacao seed also contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a naturally occurring trace amine that is also found in the human brain. PEA increases attention and activity, and is thought to be partly responsible for the “feel good” response that some individuals get from eating or drinking cocoa. The cacao seeds also contain another mood modulator called N-acylethanolamine, which is thought to activate cannabinoid receptors in the brain, or possibly increase levels of another compound that attaches to these receptors. Fortunately, you can now receive the benefits of chocolate–feelings of well-being, alertness, energy and a positive mood – without all the fat, sugar and dairy. It doesn’t get any better than that!
• Bruinsma K, Taren DL. Chocolate: Food or Drug? J Am Diet Assoc 1999;99(10): 1249-58.
• Keen CL. Chocolate: food as medicine/medicine as food. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001 Oct;20(5 Suppl):436S-439S; discussion 440S-442S. Review.
• Tomaso, E. di; Beltramo, M.; and Piomelli, D. (1996) Brain cannabinoids in chocolate. Nature 382, (6593), 677—678
• Hurst WJ, Martin RA, Zoumas, BL. Biogenic amines in chocolate: a review. Nutr Rep Intl. 1982;26:1081-6.
• Koehler PE, Eitenmiller RR. High pressure liquid chromatographic analysis of tyramine, phenylethylamine and tryptamine in sausage, cheese and chocolate. J of Food Sci. 1978;43:1245-7.
• Dorfman LJ, Jarvik ME.Comparative stimulant and diuretic actions of caffeine and theobromine in man. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1970 Nov-Dec;11(6):869-72.
Take one bite and it’s easy to see why Americans love chocolate. And although it’s not exactly the featured item in food groups recommended most by health officials, researchers are now finding that the properties behind chocolate’s recently publicized health benefits may come from the plant that is used to make this treat.
Chocolate: A healthy food?
The idea that chocolate may offer health benefits is not such a novel concept. When Cortez first visited Central America, one of his first observations was the routine use of cacao, particularly by the high priests, for its stimulant and restorative properties. Cortez discovered that the Mexican Aztecs also enjoyed a type of bitter chocolate drink containing burned and ground cacao seeds, maize, water and spices, prepared for its energizing and mood stimulating effects. And historical documents in Europe refer to chocolate’s medicinal value.† Concerns about the sugar and dairy content of chocolate keep many people from enjoying its health benefits on a routine basis. Recognizing this, Nat-Trop introduced Chocamine™, a patent-pending dietary supplement that delivers the health benefits of chocolate without the sugar, fat and dairy of the candy. Chocamine™ contains the naturally occurring components of the cacao seeds in a standardized powdered extract.
What ’s so special about the cacao seed? Cacao seeds are a natural source of theobromine – considered a mild stimulant – plus they contain constituents called flavonoids, or more specifically catechins, that function as antioxidants. Cacao seeds are one of the richest flavonoid-containing foods available. The cacao seed also contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a naturally occurring trace amine that is also found in the human brain. PEA increases attention and activity, and is thought to be partly responsible for the “feel good” response that some individuals get from eating or drinking cocoa. The cacao seeds also contain another mood modulator called N-acylethanolamine, which is thought to activate cannabinoid receptors in the brain, or possibly increase levels of another compound that attaches to these receptors. Fortunately, you can now receive the benefits of chocolate–feelings of well-being, alertness, energy and a positive mood – without all the fat, sugar and dairy. It doesn’t get any better than that!
• Bruinsma K, Taren DL. Chocolate: Food or Drug? J Am Diet Assoc 1999;99(10): 1249-58.
• Keen CL. Chocolate: food as medicine/medicine as food. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001 Oct;20(5 Suppl):436S-439S; discussion 440S-442S. Review.
• Tomaso, E. di; Beltramo, M.; and Piomelli, D. (1996) Brain cannabinoids in chocolate. Nature 382, (6593), 677—678
• Hurst WJ, Martin RA, Zoumas, BL. Biogenic amines in chocolate: a review. Nutr Rep Intl. 1982;26:1081-6.
• Koehler PE, Eitenmiller RR. High pressure liquid chromatographic analysis of tyramine, phenylethylamine and tryptamine in sausage, cheese and chocolate. J of Food Sci. 1978;43:1245-7.
• Dorfman LJ, Jarvik ME.Comparative stimulant and diuretic actions of caffeine and theobromine in man. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1970 Nov-Dec;11(6):869-72.
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