Cocoa for pleasure — and health?
Yes, we love cocoa in winter, particularly around Valentine’s Day. But does cocoa love us? While you may want to pass the mug, you also may also need to watch out for the saturated fat and sugar. Researchers at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are launching a massive, four-year, 18,000-person, randomized trial to get at some of the truths behind the potential health benefits of cocoa. Earlier observational studies and smaller clinical studies have hinted that compounds in cocoa called flavanols carry health benefits, protecting against everything from heart disease to stroke to dementia, so researchers want to learn more. “Cocoa flavanols appear to be very promising for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and memory loss, cognitive decline,” said JoAnn Manson, co-principal investigator of the study, Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School, and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital...