If someone said to you “chocolate can be great for your health” you might look at them in a strange way and laugh. It’s a fact that we think many things about chocolate – but probably never that it is a health food. There are a number of health concerns that are brought up with standard chocolate that you buy in stores – you could probably think of a few of them yourself. One is clearly that it is very high in sugar, and any doctor will tell you that sugar is something you need to cut back on. Another is the increased levels of fat – no-one is championing eating lots of fat as a good idea.
There are also many other noted problems with store bought chocolate that are less obvious. This includes that fact that it uses cocoa butter, which can be problematic because it contains around 25 per cent palmitic acid and studies have shown that high levels of palmitic acid are linked to an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease. It doesn’t seem so much like a health food. And yet, it has been clear for a long time that the cacao bean does have some very positive aspects for your health. But is it possible to unlock them if we are so used to store bought chocolate with the associated problems.
As it turns out it is true that we can. It comes to us via the Kuna Indians, and if you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone. They live on a group of islands that is close to Panama. The Kuna people have been shown to have an impressively low average blood pressure – a clear sign of good cardiovascular health. It is also true that they do not seem to experience the same age-related increase in blood pressure that we do in Western societies. Perhaps even more crucially, death rates from cardiovascular disease and cancer (which are the top killers in Western societies) have been shown to be virtually nil among the Kuna people. As an example, in America it was reported that for every 100,000 people 83 died from cardiovascular disease and 68 from cancer. Amongst the Kuna people, just 9 and 4 respectively died from these diseases.
It is clear, then, that something is improving the health of the Kuna people. There have been many theories regarding this including the relatively low average age of the Kuna, but these reasons have all been shown to be inconclusive. However, there is one reason that is has been thought to improve their health. The Kuna consume more than four cups of cocoa-based drink every day. This cocoa is not the store bought kind, but is locally grown and has not been fermented or roasted. The Kuna make their drink by grinding raw cacao beans and then boil them with banana. It is thought that this method of producing a cocoa drink actually removes some of the problems for health and allows the Kuna to enjoy the clear benefits of cocoa.
As these beans are very difficult for you to come across, you’ll need to make your own drink and you can order raw, organic cacao beans that would still retain the same benefits that the Kuna use. Clearly it is true that more research into this is required to see if the affects can be proven to come from the cocoa drink but if it can it could give researchers a way to look for new ways to eliminate the problems of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
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