Podcast Summary

Welcome to Dr. Warrick's podcast channel. Warrick is a practicing cardiologist and author with a passion for improving care by helping patients understand their heart health through education. Warrick believes educated patients get the best health care. Discover and understand the latest approaches and technology in heart care and how this might apply to you or someone you love. Hi, my name is Dr. Warrick Bishop and welcome to my podcast and videocast station. Today I'd like to share with you a little bit about chocolate and for me right now that's pretty topical because I'm speaking regarding this podcast at Easter time. You may not listen to it or it may not be scheduled until some months later. However, right here right now it is Easter for me and it seems... topical and relevant to talk a little bit about chocolate. Now of course Easter is not all about chocolate it's a religious celebration a religious time but we are aware of chocolate creeping into that particular celebration that particular time of year and we share chocolate with friends family and of course children who enjoy such things as egg hunts at Easter time. Well, during this time of consumption of chocolate, let's pause and think a little bit about it. Well, it is traced back to the Olmec civilizations from, well, approximately a thousand years before Christ. And this civilization were the... Civilization that subsequently led to the Maya and the Aztecs and occurred roughly around the area of Mexico. So what is chocolate? The raw ingredient is a tree seed. It's called cacao. Cacao. And it's a tree seed that when we roast it or when it is roasted then is called... Cocoa. Cacao gets roasted and becomes cocoa. So you may have seen cacao and cocoa written in different places and that's the distinction. One is the roasted form of the other. Well, we know some facts about chocolate, of course, when it's made. There's lots of fat and sugar added. to those ingredients and that fat and sugar carries with it calories those calories can be linked to weight gain and therefore the consequences of that which include raised blood pressure risk of diabetes and risk of coronary artery disease there's talk about whether cacao or coca have antioxidants that could be beneficial there's talk about whether The cocoa can have a cholesterol-lowering effect. And it's probably worth noting that if you are going to consume sugar, in the context of chocolate, the sugar wrapped up with fat probably slows its absorption in a way that's more favorable than taking that sugar alone. And lastly, we know chocolate really is just quite enjoyable. Is some of the research and so forth helping? Well, there's questions about whether cocoa flavonoids can reduce cholesterol. Not particularly robust, and I'd probably not be suggesting chocolate consumption for my patients whose cholesterol I'm looking to lower. There's been a bit of research looking at a couple of cups of hot chocolate a day to reduce brain decline. drinking sweet drinks. I'd be a bit concerned about that because of the risk of diabetes and diabetes and its association with Alzheimer's in fact. There is an interesting paper in the BMJ that pointed to heart disease risk reduction but of course people who consume chocolate may also do other things as well and they could be The very people who are specific and particular about their chocolate consumption because they've undertaken exercise and followed a healthy eating regime. So confounders in these sort of studies can be very difficult to interpret. An interesting Canadian study in a similar vein suggested that up to 100 grams of chocolate per day may reduce risk of stroke. Again, this sort of study is very hard to separate out. There was a 2016 study which suggested 30 grams of chocolate a day may well be reasonable for achieving good healthy fetal growth. Again, I'm not quite sure how to fit this in and of course there would be a reasonable number of women during pregnancy who may have cravings for a little bit of chocolate. Perhaps a little is not too bad in that space. I even came across some information that suggested athletic performance may be facilitated and improved by small amounts of dark chocolate improving energy production. Well, where do we sit with chocolate? We certainly enjoy it. It is something that should be consumed in moderation, particularly with the sugar and fat that's in there. There's not a lot of data to tell us it really is good for us. That doesn't mean we shouldn't eat it. I think if you're looking to lose weight, then it's not going to help anyway. You cut it. And there is a lot of sugar in there. So if you're looking to drop your weight, if you are at risk of diabetes, really keeping those chocolate levels down is probably the best thing to do. Maybe enjoy a treat once or twice a year. Perhaps Easter time is not a bad time to consider it. For now, I'm going to say goodbye. I hope you've got a bit of a sweet tooth and taste for the information shared today. If you've got any queries or questions, drop me a note. For now, I wish you the very best, hoping you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now. You have been listening to another podcast from Dr. Warrick. Visit his website at drWarrickbishop.com for the latest news on heart disease. If you love this podcast, feel free to leave us a review.