Shedding Light on Dark Chocolate by Catherine Boal

In a previous post about Flavonoid-rich Cocoa found healthy for the brain I promised to do a little research about chocolate manufacturers...
this is what I found:

Shedding Light on Dark Chocolate by Catherine Boal
The US based Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) has released a guide to cacao content labels in order to demystify confused chocolate consumers.

The luxurious image of dark chocolate combined with increased publicity about its purported health benefits has made it a popular chocolate choice - leading many manufacturers to incorporate product labels proclaiming percentage cocoa content.
However, this is frequently easily misunderstood by consumers who fail to understand the exact nature of the cacao composition and can make inaccurate assumptions about the health benefits or taste of the product.

CMA president Lynn Bragg said: "We wanted to provide consumers with useful information for a greater appreciation of this trend, as cacao terminology becomes increasingly more important."

The CMA consumer guide defines cacao percentages as "the total percentage of ingredients (by weight) which come from the cacao bean". ....read more at http://confectionerynews.com/news/ng.asp?id=72675

Flavonoid-rich cocoa found healthy for the brain

By studying differences in people living on and off the group of islands called Kuna, researchers found that people who regularly drank cocoa rich in flavonoids had less chance of having dementia, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts, United States) found that native people living on the island group Kuna, off the Caribbean coast of Panama in Central America, did not have high blood pressure when young and old. However, if these natives left their homeland for the Central American mainland, their blood pressure went up.

After about fifteen years of research to find a cause for this difference, the researchers found that Kuna natives drink several cups of cocoa each day. However, if they move away from Kuna, then that habit did not continue or did not continue in exactly the same way.

The researchers eventually found the crucial link. They discovered that cocoa drank by Kuna natives is very high in the compounds called flavonoids, while the cocoa drank on the mainland is not rich in flavonoids.

Derived from plants, flavonoids is a class of secondary metabolites that have been shown in previous studies to improve the body’s response when attacked by carcinogens, allergens, and viruses.

If proven true, flavonoids have the potential to help prevent cancers and cardiovascular diseases. (Other foods and drinks shown to contain flavonoid compounds include fruit, vegetables, tea, and red wine.)

Because flavonid compounds have a bitter taste, they are often removed from cocoa made by manufacturers in large quantities in most countries.

To confirm their findings, the researchers gave flavonoid-rich cocoa to 50-year-old and older people, while another group of the same age range was given cocoa without flavonoids. Their study found that the flavonoid-rich group had blood flow in the brain that was 10 to 15% better than the brain flow in the non-flavonoid group.

Within their study, the collaborators mention that some chocolate and cocoa manufacturers are beginning to realize the health benefits of flavonoids. As a result, they are reintroducing them into their products.

Note: I intend to do some research of my own to identify some
manufacturers who are selling chocolate and cocoa containing
flavonoids and report that information back to the readers
of this blog.

Fran