This book entitled “Cocoa, Chocolate, and Human Health” presents the most recent findings about cocoa and health in 14 peer-reviewed chapters including nine original contributions and five reviews from cocoa experts around the world. Bioavailability and metabolism of the main cocoa polyphenols, i.e., the flavanols like epicatechin, are presented including metabolites like valerolactones that are formed by the gut microbiome. Many studies, including intervention studies or epidemiological observations, do not focus on single compounds, but on cocoa as a whole. This proves the effectiveness of cocoa as a functional food. A positive influence of cocoa on hearing problems, exercise performance, and metabolic syndrome is discussed with mixed results; the results about exercise performance are contradictive. Evidence shows that cocoa flavanols may modulate some risk factors related to metabolic syndrome such as hypertension and disorders in glucose and lipid metabolism. However, several cardiometabolic parameters in type 2 diabetics were not affected by a flavanol-rich cocoa powder as simultaneous treatment with pharmaceuticals might have negated the effect of cocoa. The putative health-promoting components of cocoa are altered during processing like fermentation, drying, and roasting of cocoa beans. Chocolate, the most popular cocoa product, shows remarkable losses in polyphenols and vitamin E during 18 months of storage.

This book entitled “Cocoa, Chocolate, and Human Health” presents the most recent findings about cocoa and health in 14 peer-reviewed chapters including nine original contributions and five reviews from cocoa experts around the world. Bioavailability and metabolism of the main cocoa polyphenols, i.e., the flavanols like epicatechin, are presented including metabolites like valerolactones that are formed by the gut microbiome. Many studies, including intervention studies or epidemiological observations, do not focus on single compounds, but on cocoa as a whole. This proves the effectiveness of cocoa as a functional food. A positive influence of cocoa on hearing problems, exercise performance, and metabolic syndrome is discussed with mixed results; the results about exercise performance are contradictive. Evidence shows that cocoa flavanols may modulate some risk factors related to metabolic syndrome such as hypertension and disorders in glucose and lipid metabolism. However, several cardiometabolic parameters in type 2 diabetics were not affected by a flavanol-rich cocoa powder as simultaneous treatment with pharmaceuticals might have negated the effect of cocoa. The putative health-promoting components of cocoa are altered during processing like fermentation, drying, and roasting of cocoa beans. Chocolate, the most popular cocoa product, shows remarkable losses in polyphenols and vitamin E during 18 months of storage.

Chocolate in Health and Nutrition represents the first comprehensive compilation of the newest data on the actions of the flavonoids and microorganisms associated with the beneficial effects of chocolate. This unique text provides practical, data-driven resources based upon the totality of the evidence to help the reader understand the basics, treatments and preventive strategies that are involved in the understanding of the role chocolate may play in healthy individuals as well as those with cardiovascular disease, diabetes or neurocognitive declines. Of equal importance, critical issues that involve patient concerns, such as dental caries and food preferences in children, potential effects on weight gain, addiction and withdrawal are included in well-referenced, informative chapters. The latest research on the role of chocolate in normal health areas including mood, pain and weight management, cardiovascular disease and related conditions are presented. Chocolate in Health and Nutrition provides health professionals in many areas of research and practice with the most up-to-date, well referenced and comprehensive volume on the current state of the science and medical uses of chocolate.

Cocoa and chocolate are the subjects of much research in the fields of food chemistry, food technology, and health science. We now know that cocoa contains a remarkable number of bioactive compounds, and these are being tested in humans to verify their disease prevention characteristics. This state of the art text thoroughly explores the different aspects of the relationship between chocolate and health. After introductory discussion of the historical background, careful attention is devoted to technological developments designed to improve the health-giving qualities of chocolate and biochemical and clinical trials of cocoa and its components. Various health impacts of cocoa and chocolate are thoroughly evaluated, including acute vascular effects and effects on blood pressure, blood lipids, and platelets. Psychological drivers of chocolate consumption and craving are also considered. Readers will find this book to be a rich source of essential information on cocoa and chocolate, their purported health-giving qualities, and the advances that are being made in this area.

Eat your way to better health with this New York Times bestseller on food's ability to help the body heal itself from cancer, dementia, and dozens of other avoidable diseases. Forget everything you think you know about your body and food, and discover the new science of how the body heals itself. Learn how to identify the strategies and dosages for using food to transform your resilience and health in Eat to Beat Disease. We have radically underestimated our body's power to transform and restore our health. Pioneering physician scientist, Dr. William Li, empowers readers by showing them the evidence behind over 200 health-boosting foods that can starve cancer, reduce your risk of dementia, and beat dozens of avoidable diseases. Eat to Beat Disease isn't about what foods to avoid, but rather is a life-changing guide to the hundreds of healing foods to add to your meals that support the body's defense systems, including: Plums Cinnamon Jasmine tea Red wine and beer Black Beans San Marzano tomatoes Olive oil Pacific oysters Cheeses like Jarlsberg, Camembert and cheddar Sourdough bread The book's plan shows you how to integrate the foods you already love into any diet or health plan to activate your body's health defense systems-Angiogenesis, Regeneration, Microbiome, DNA Protection, and Immunity-to fight cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative autoimmune diseases, and other debilitating conditions. Both informative and practical, Eat to Beat Disease explains the science of healing and prevention, the strategies for using food to actively transform health, and points the science of wellbeing and disease prevention in an exhilarating new direction.

In the ancient past, cocoa has been appreciated as a high-calorie food to boost energy in soldiers and for its undefined medicinal and mystical properties. During other times, chocolate has been considered as the forbidden “food of God”: a treasure of pleasure for the mind and the soul. The overall perception of the consumer for chocolate was of a “charming” and appealing food with lots of negative aspects related to high sugar content leading to consider chocolate as “junk food” for its “obesigen” calories. Recently, in association with the renewed interest of nutrition science in alternative source of health-promoting foods and ingredients, a large body of research has been conducted to unravel the pro and cons of cocoa in relation to human health. Epidemiological evidences indicate that cocoa consumption helps preventing cardiovascular disease for its high content in bioactive flavonoids. Clinical trials show that chocolate consumption might improve vascular function, decreasing platelet aggregation and display an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. The putative protective action of cocoa seems to be multi-factorial and involving different aspects of vascular, antioxidant and endothelial function. However, the mechanism(s) that account for the benefits of cocoa it is still unclear. The aim of this Research Topic is therefore to provide the reader with an objective picture of the state of art on the association between cocoa and health, mainly through the evidences of human trials; overwhelmingly considered the golden standard for nutritional science. The Research Topic will cover the analysis of the manufacturing processes of the chocolate and the antioxidant effects in humans as well as the majority of the putative health effects of chocolate and cocoa, such as anti-inflammatory properties, effect on immunity, platelet aggregation, blood pressure, endothelial function and cognitive behavior. Unraveling the functional properties of cocoa will help to understand if the 'food of God' is a primordial gift for the health of mankind.

The Mesoamerican population who lived near the indigenous cultivation sites of the "Chocolate Tree" (Theobromo cacao) had a multitude of documented applications of chocolate as medicine, ranging from alleviating fatigue to preventing heart ailments to treating snakebite. Until recently, these applications have received little sound scientific scrutiny. Rather, it has been the reputed health claims stemming from Europe and the United States which have attracted considerable biomedical attention. This book, for the first time, describes the centuries-long quest to uncover chocolate's potential health benefits. The authors explore variations in the types of evidence used to support chocolate's use as medicine as well as note the ongoing tension over categorizing chocolate as food or medicine, and more recently, as functional food or nutraceutical. The authors, Wilson an historian of science and medicine, and Hurst an analytical chemist in the chocolate industry, bring their collective insights to bear upon the development of ideas and practices surrounding the use of chocolate as medicine. Chocolate's use in this manner is explored first among the Mesoamerican peoples, then as it is transported to Europe, and back into Colonial North America. The authors then focus upon more recent bioscience experimental undertakings which have been aimed to ascertain both long-standing and novel suggestions as to chocolate's efficacy as a medicinal and a nutritional substance. Chocolate/s reputation as the most craved food boosts this book's appeal to food and biomedical scientists, cacao researchers, ethnobotanists, historians, folklorists, and healers of all types as well as to the general reading audience.