Monday, February 27, 2006

My Bad Habit

There are few foods that people feel as passionate about -- a passion that goes beyond a love for the "sweetness" of most candies or desserts: after all, few people crave caramel, whipped cream, or bubble gum. Chocolate is, well, different. For the true chocoholic, just thinking about chocolate can evoke a pleasurable response. Whoa…

I have a bad habit. It is getting worse lately. I think I am really addicted to it.

I am addicted to Chocolate! Oh no. I become a chocoholic!!! i think i really can't survive woithout chocolate...

OMG. I can’t help myself from open up the fridge to take a bar of chocolate. Whatever Swiss chocolate or Belgium chocolate, they are all melted in my mouth. I can’t help myself from this. Any ideas how to get rid of it?

Some says chocolate are good for health especially those dark chocolate with bitter taste. While some says they are bad for teeth. Yeah, that’s true. If you eat a lot of chocolate, you will have a high risk to suffer from tooth decay.

Well, here’s an article about chocolate on health help or risk for chocoholics and non-chocoholics.

Chocolate has been said to cause acne and tooth decay, and has a reputation for being a fattening, nutritionless food. On the other hand, chocolate is also known for being everything from an anti-depressant to an aphrodisiac. While there's still much we don't know about chocolate, recent research is helping us better understand how chocolate consumption affects our health.

The good news is that most of the bad effects of eating chocolate are either overstated or entirely false. Eating chocolate neither causes nor aggravates acne. Two studies -- one by the Pennsylvania School of Medicine and another by the U.S. Naval Academy -- showed that eating chocolate (or not eating it) did not produce any significant changes in the acne conditions of the study's participants. These results are further backed by research which shows that acne is not primarily linked to diet.

Chocolate also has not been proven to cause cavities or tooth decay. In fact, there are indications that the cocoa butter in the chocolate coats the teeth and may help protect them by preventing plaque from forming. The sugar in chocolate does contribute to cavities, but no more than the sugar in any other food.

Obviously, eating too much of any food may cause health problems. The cocoa butter in chocolate does contain saturated fat, which can increase blood cholesterol levels, and high cholesterol can contribute to heart disease. However, recent research at the University of California, Davis, has found that chocolate carries high levels of chemicals known as phenolics, some of which may help lower the risk of heart disease. Plants such as chocolate, coffee, tea and others contain high levels of phenolics.

Andrew Waterhouse, the lead researcher from U.C. Davis, is a wine chemist. For several years he has been studying the possible health benefits of antioxidant phenolics found in red wine. Waterhouse told us that phenolic compounds are found in all plant products, and that the plants "probably make them as protective agents and for improving their success at reproduction." The bitter, astringent taste that these plants have is an indication of the phenolics found within.

So how might phenolics prevent heart disease? Apparently, phenolics prevent fat-like substances in the bloodstream from oxidizing and clogging the arteries. Said Waterhouse: "It's now believed that atherosclerosis, or the formation of plaque in the arteries, is caused by oxidation of LDL (low-density lipoproteins) -- that's one of the cholesterol particles. At first, this leads to subtle damage, and then eventually to the formation of advanced plaque." The buildup of plaque can lead to clogging of the arteries, a major cause of heart attacks.

While phenolics have chemically been proven to reduce oxidation, Waterhouse cautioned that: “It's not known if the phenolic compounds, like the flavenoids that are present in chocolate, can reduce disease. It's well known that these substances are antioxidants in a chemical sense. . . but we don't have strong, large-scale, controlled human studies.”

9 comments:

Sky.Live said...

where you cut and paste this thing? lol...

eating "abit" chochalate esepcially the dark one is good for you. i live choc too but dislike those which i over-sweaten..

Choc provide you the best instant energy source, believe it or not, when i climb mount kinabalu, i ate choc as additional energy source. After that i never have choc for a few months.. LOL

Sky.Live said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

yup... phenolics is really good for health. other than antioxidant, phenolics also have anti- inflammatory, and anti- clotting properties. Olive oil contain large amount of phenolics.

ai wei said...

whoa... a ho very Pro ooo...
no wonder olive is recommended as one of the good Oils la.

a ho very geng lar. very hardworking tim. sure everyday study very hard

^^

Sky.Live said...

lol, try olive with salad instead of myyonis cream, it's less fattening, preserve vitamin and taste of the vege.. and also healthier ^^

Anonymous said...

lolz... try use olive oil to cook lar. olive oill is soooooo expensive. /.\

Sky.Live said...

no prob if u are rich enuff ^^ like ai wei

Anonymous said...

y my MintDarker 'M' and 'D' cannot write in capital de...???

ai wei said...

Lol. i was like having chemistry lessons here. haha. Miss chemistry badly.

to sky.live,
well, i am not rich, ok??? i am very poor de a. Only once a while i treat myself for a better meal only.

to MintDarker,
erm... bout the M n D, i really dunno le. i will check it out.

yeah... use olive oil is an italian style. use it instead of thousand island and mayonnaise. but i still prefer japanses style, using mayonnaise only. ahha... thousand island n mayonnaise are really fattening!

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