Dark chocolate question?

[old3bob]

"Does chocolate increase bleeding?

They found that the specially enriched dark chocolate significantly increased bleeding time after six hours in both men and women, possibly caused by the metabolites that our bodies produce from flavanols.Dec 21, 2012"

 

Has anyone heard of or know  of this about chocolate?

Edited June 13, 2021 by old3bob

[cheya]

Do you know what the chocolate was "specially enriched" with?

[old3bob]

22 minutes ago, cheya said:

Do you know what the chocolate was "specially enriched" with?

 

no I don't know exactly what the quote meant by that or what ingredient they may have meant? (btw, some bars have artificial flavors while others don't)  I brought this up because I (and probably some other people here) sometimes over indulge dark chocolate and that I also wonder if my small occasional nose bleeds could be related to that? 

[doc benway]

"Specially enriched" most likely refers to flavanol-rich.

The cardiovascular benefits of chocolate seem to be related to flavanol which is more concentrated in chocolate with 70% or more cocoa.

Multiple studies have shown a variety of health benefits of consuming dark chocolate and cocoa.

Hopkins published a study in 2006 showing a heart-protective effect due to anticoagulation.

Google scholar is a good way to search for studies from peer-reviewed journals on the topic.

Here is an interesting study on the effects of flavanols or brain function - 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3575938/

 

 

[cheya]

I'd probably pass on the "specially enriched" and just eat more, lol.

Love me some dark chocolate!

 

Funny story. Preparing for lots of possible company for Y2K (remember that?), and thinking chocolate was one of the things we'd be missing the most, I prepared.  I bought fifty pounds of Dutch chocolate powder and vacuum-packed all of it up into 2-quart jars. And yes, even giving lots of jars away, I still have a lot left, and still use it regularly.

For awhile, I was calling it old chocolate, but now I am referring to it as aged.

And 20 years later, it still tastes great.

Ah, the many wonders of chocolate.

[old3bob]

that was a whole lot of info Steve, I've read about 1/3 of it so far !  Sounds like I could improve my chess game (among more important issues) if I ate the correct amount of dark chocolate.  Still not sure about the bleeding mentioned in the OP? 

[cheya]

@old3bob   Are you eating the specially enriched version?  I eat an awful lot of dark chocolate, and don't have bleeding problems. If I did, I would increase nutrients that strengthen blood vessels, especially vitamins C and K. 

 

A few other nutrients that could be increasing bleeding tendency would be garlic, fish oil, and vitamin E. But like chocolate, I'd work on strengthening vessels before I'd give up any of those.

[old3bob]

50 minutes ago, cheya said:

@old3bob   Are you eating the specially enriched version?  I eat an awful lot of dark chocolate, and don't have bleeding problems. If I did, I would increase nutrients that strengthen blood vessels, especially vitamins C and K. 

 

A few other nutrients that could be increasing bleeding tendency would be garlic, fish oil, and vitamin E. But like chocolate, I'd work on strengthening vessels before I'd give up any of those.

 

mainly the 72% stuff which is about all it says on the label.  (and I don't think i get that much vitamin k...)

[doc benway]

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C21&q=diane+becker+chocolate&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DeCy6eZ8kx6YJ

[thelerner]

On 6/13/2021 at 10:41 AM, old3bob said:

"Does chocolate increase bleeding?

They found that the specially enriched dark chocolate significantly increased bleeding time after six hours in both men and women, possibly caused by the metabolites that our bodies produce from flavanols.Dec 21, 2012"

 

Has anyone heard of or know  of this about chocolate?

never heard that, but I think it's worth the risk.  

There's so many good things about chocolate that I'll often put a teaspoon or two of the cocoa powder into my coffee.  Nice to get a hit of Magnesium, anti-oxidants and unique flavonoids first thing in the morning.

[dwai]

According to Ayurveda dark chocolate increases pitta (fire). Increased pitta can cause bleeding.

 

https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/signs-symptoms-of-pitta-imbalance/

[old3bob]

16 hours ago, dwai said:

According to Ayurveda dark chocolate increases pitta (fire). Increased pitta can cause bleeding.

 

https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/info/blog-the-banyan-insight/details/signs-symptoms-of-pitta-imbalance/

 

Those are some serious conditions mentioned!  Thank goodness I'm not having hardly any of those symptom's or to the degrees as stated in several places.   Reviewing what I had eaten close to when I had my minor nose bleed I'm now wondering if it could have been way too much salt from eating a ton of organic and well salted blue corn chips ?  (being that I don't normally over-do-it with salt)

I think part of the equation is as  we get older balances in the body have to be watched more closely compared to when we were younger and our bodies could handle big swings with various foods and life in general.  (many decades ago I used to say to some of the young guys I was in the military with that they must be in pretty healthy shape to survive their heavy and often repeated drinking bouts,  with fewer such bouts that I also survived!  )  

Edited June 17, 2021 by old3bob

[thelerner]

11 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

 

I think part of the equation is as  we get older balances in the body have to be watched more closely compared to when we were younger and our bodies could handle big swings with various foods and life in general.  

As I've grown older I've gotten more lactose intolerant.  weh  

still good for a small portion though.