Cocoa ingredient 'rivals penicillin' By Roger Highfield
Last Updated: 2:19am GMT 12/03/2007
The health benefits of one ingredient of cocoa are so striking that it "may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health".
The ingredient - epicatechin - can reduce the risk from diseases such as stroke and heart failure, Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told the journal Chemistry & Industry.
Prof Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. They drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week. Among the Kuna, he found that the risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes was reduced to less than 10 per cent.
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"Epicatechin could potentially get rid of four of the five most common diseases in the western world," Prof Hollenberg told the journal.
The cocoa that the Kuna drink is homemade and very rich in chemicals called -flavanols, notably epicatechin, which is known to have cardio-vascular benefits.
Flavanols are removed from commercial cocoas because they tend to have a bitter taste.
The ingredient - epicatechin - can reduce the risk from diseases such as stroke and heart failure, Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told the journal Chemistry & Industry.
Prof Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. They drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week. Among the Kuna, he found that the risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes was reduced to less than 10 per cent.
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"Epicatechin could potentially get rid of four of the five most common diseases in the western world," Prof Hollenberg told the journal.
The cocoa that the Kuna drink is homemade and very rich in chemicals called -flavanols, notably epicatechin, which is known to have cardio-vascular benefits.
Flavanols are removed from commercial cocoas because they tend to have a bitter taste.
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