Searching for Chocolate Eaters
Monday April 28, 2008
The University of East Anglia is conducting a study on the health benefits of chocolate. I think I would move to England just to be a part of this study, but I don't meet the criteria - that is, post-menopausal, diabetic and under the age of 70.
The chocolate used in the study will be high in flavonoids and will also contain soy. The researchers are hoping to find out if consuming this special chocolate will reduce the participants' risk for heart disease. That could be important for aging ladies because the hormonal changes associated with menopause means less heart-health protection.
I hope the study will have positive findings. In fact I hope all research on the flavonoids in chocolate have positive findings. I kind of like the idea that a piece of chocolate a day may keep the heart attacks away... Do you qualify for the study?
Photo © Ann- Kathrin Rehse
Comments
The only problem I can see with this special chocolate is that they are putting soy in it. I am a breast cancer survivor and I have heard that soy may cause breast cancer.
Hi Rita,
I agree with you on that. I would certainly hope the researchers take breast cancer risk into consideration. I would like the study better if it only measured the flavonoids found in chocolate. When you start adding things, like this, you can’t really be sure which is effective – the soy or the chocolate.
As best that I can tell, the soy/ breast cancer propaganda was started by the cow’s milk suppliers/ industry. You should be much more concerned about the hormones found in cow’s milk. Soy milk and soy products are great, in my researched opinion. Thanks for your concerns, though. It is important to look closely at many of these issues.
I meet all the criteria, but alas, I am not caucasian.
A recent study out of UCLA suggest that higher soy intake in Asian populations is protective against breast cancer, and is unrelated to cancer in Western populations. I will try to pastw the pubmed.gov link here”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18182974?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
-Steve Parker, M.D.
http://AdvancedMediterraneanDiet.com/blog/
A 2008 study at UCLA suggests that high soy intake among Asians is protective against breast cancer, and in Western populations there is no relation between the two.
The study is in the British Journal of Cancer, by AH Wu et al, “Epidemiology of soy exposures and breast cancer risk, ” vol 98 (1), p.9-14.
I’ll try posting the URL at pubmed.gov in the next box. It failed on my first try.
It didn’t work. May be the URL is too long. You can probably find the article abstract at pubmed.gov if you use the info I provided.