One piece of good news in this situation is that not everything we enjoy is bad for us.  In particular dark chocolate, which is my personal favourite treat, is getting some really good health reviews at the moment.

Chocolate is essentially a plant extract which contains a large amount of antioxidants and flavonoids.  Antioxidants protect us against free radicals which are involved in the aging process and in heart disease.  Flavonoids in chocolate help to reduce blood pressure which also lowers  the risk of heart disease.  In addition to this chocolate also contains endorphins which give us pleasure, serotonin which is an antidepressant and caffeine which is a stimulant.  It seems also that chocolate does not contain cholesterol and so has a neutral effect on our blood levels of cholesterol.

However before you rush out and buy large quantities of chocolate there are some things to bear in mind.  It is really important to eat only dark chocolate, preferably with 70% cocoa solids.  Despite the health benefits, chocolate is still a high calorie food and it is recommended that daily intake should not exceed 100g.  Anything more and you will just have to exercise to counteract the calorie intake.  The higher the cocoa content the lower the sugar content in chocolate so white chocolate in particular should be avoided.  Another good tip is to avoid chocolate with sweet fillings as these will contain pretty serious levels of sugar.   Keep it plain and simple.

I have been eating dark chocolate for some time now and I find it really does cheer me up.  Unlike red wine, which I also enjoy, I do not find chocolate addictive.  I can easily limit myself to about 50g per day.  I also found that I quickly developed a palate for chocolate and was soon able to discriminate between good and poor quality products.  If you haven’t done so already why not try it out, it really is good fun.

Here’s to a guilt free 2010

Over the last couple of months I have been receiving emails promoting  Acai Berries as a superfood capable of slowing down the aging process, helping with weight loss and providing energy.  If all this were to be believed then the Acai Berry would surely be more of a miracle food than a superfood.  Just think, a simple fruit that can make you look younger, be thinner and give you lots of energy.

So what are Acai Berries?  Well……. they are berries.  Admittedly they come all the way from the Amazonian rain forest but they are berries non the less.  This berry is the fruit of the Acai Palm  and it has been harvested by the Amazonian Indians for hundreds of years.  You will no doubt have heard that Amazonian Indians are slim, youthful in appearance and have boundless energy!!!

So what are the health benefits?  Dr. David Bender who writes for the Healthwatch publication looked  at  papers published up to August 2008 to see if any of the claims have been substantiated by scientific research.  He concluded that there was no mention in any paper of any possible or likely weight reducing action associated with the berries. The berries are in fact high in Vitamin C but we are not in general deficient in this vitamin so there is no need to eat Acai berries in particular to fulfill our daily requirements.  Most nutritionists would agree that there is no magic pill for weight loss with exercise and a balanced diet being the time tested method of choice.

Acai berries just like all berries do not store or travel well. They are usually exported as dried products or in juice with other fruits.  In the developed world there is a market for exotic fruit and the current trend for Acai berries has at least given local farmers the opportunity to earn some money.  So there is no reason at all not to eat and enjoy the fruit.  It will just not make you thin.

However a more sinister problem has developed.  There are some unscrupulous companies advertising free trials Acai Berries on line.  The catch of course is that you must provide credit card details for postage and packaging.  If you do not cancel your subscription within a very short period of time you will be charged for further deliveries.  There are even reports of people being charged who have cancelled their subscriptions within the stated time period.  The scam is world wide with complaints from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Germany and the UK.

Whether it is exaggerated health claims or supposed free trials the old rule of thumb still applies.  If it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is!!

]]> http://ann-o-leary.com/acai-berries/feed/ 3 http://ann-o-leary.com/comfort-eating/ http://ann-o-leary.com/comfort-eating/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:07:02 +0000 Ann O'Leary http://ann-o-leary.com/?p=242 We are all familiar with the idea of eating for comfort  and pleasure and how difficult it is to be disciplined . A recent study conducted by Peggy Mason and Hayley Foo has thrown some light on this problem. The researchers show that eating chocolate or drinking water can have a painkilling effect even in the absence of hunger or thirst.

In their study lab rats were given either a chocolate chip or had plain water or sugar water (containing saccharine) infused directly into their mouths.  As they were eating or drinking a light bulb was turned on under their cage.  Normally the rats would raise their paws to avoid the pain caused by the heat of the bulb.  However in this case the rats were much slower to respond the the heat.  It did not matter whether they were eating  chocolate or drinking  water, the delay in raising their paws was the same and so the researchers have concluded that the pain relief factor is not linked to the calorie content of the food.

When the rats were fed a sour drink which they did not like they reacted quickly to the heat stimulus which suggested that non pleasurable food  fails to activate pain relief.  Further tests were run whereby the rats were made ill by drug treatment and were unable to eat.  Again it was demonstrated that water alone could have a pain relief effect.  The researchers conclude therefore that consuming food or drink that is liked (called hedonic food) activates a pain relief response in the animal.

In the brain stem there is an area called the raphe mangus which is responsible for automatic functions such as breathing or perspiring.  When this area was removed in the rats the pain relief effect was no longer experienced.  Basically activation of the raphe mangus causes animals to filter out all distractions and to focus on food until it is all gone.  In the wild this is of tremendous benefit to animals as they do better if they are not distracted during the limited periods when food is available.  It seems that the  pain relief is basically a pleasure sensation associated with eating something good  and it is not activated when the animal eats something toxic or harmful.

The authors believe that this effect can also be seen in humans.  Once we begin to eat something we like we can continue eating until it is gone even when we know this behaviour is bad.  Basically we are biologically destined to eat what is available.  Since there is a lot more food available to us in many parts of the world we now see a big increase in obesity.  Understanding the mechanisms behind overeating may help us to deal with the obesity problem at some point.

Analgesia accompanying food consumption requires injestion of hedonic foods.  Journal of Neuroscience. October 14th. 2009

Today, although organic farming still exists, it is carried out by a small minority of growers and farmers.  Very strict regulations are in place to determine if food can be classified as truly organic.  The use of certain fertilizers, perticides, genetic engineering , growth hormones, irradiation and antibiotics in the absence of disease are prohibited.

It is a commonly held belief that organic food is better for us and there is an ever growing consumer demand for this type of produce.  Organic food has certainly become extremely fashionable but it is also extremely expensive.

So is organic food actually better for us or not?  This is the question that the Food Standards Agency in the UK  addressed in a recent study it commissioned.  The study was conducted by the London School of Hygiene  & Medicine.  All papers published over the last 50 years relating to nutritional content and health differences between the two types of produce were reviewed.  The team concluded that there was no significant difference in nutritional value between organic and non organic produce.

Can we now breath a sigh of relief and abandon the organic section in our local supermarket?  I think not.  This is a perfectly fine study but it deals with only one issue i.e. nutritional value.  While it is a relief to know that we are eating food of good nutritional value it is not the full story. Food safety is a very important issue.  We do not have any idea for example, what the long term effects of growth hormones will be. We regularly consume these in meat and happily give them to our children.  Even from an aesthetic point of view do we really want to eat irradiated strawberries?  Isn’t is better just to wait until they are in season and just pick them?  What bothers me about the study is not the study in itself but the fact that it will be quoted as a reliable source in support of conventional farming methods without reference to the wider debate.