Ask the Doctors | June 2005

Ask the Doctors
By Drs. Jeff, Craig and Marissa

Question: I heard something in the news about chocolate and how it can help fight cancer...I love chocolate! Can this be true?

Answer: Yes it's true! We can express our thanks to the researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center who have brought world attention to the concept that chocolate may help combat cancer. In fact, they found a particular substance in cocoa, from the flavanoids family, which seems to exert anti-cancer properties on breast cancer. Flavanoids act as antioxidants by directly destroying free radicals, chelating reactive elements such as iron, or by inhibiting oxidative enzymes. We at doctorcurves are very excited to see this growing attention and research given to flavanoids and other antioxidants.

So, this is good news for women who love chocolate. But let us be clear that we are not advocating chocolate to be a healthy snack nor a therapeutic remedy for cancer. In fact, Dr. Dickson stresses that this research, which is part of a series of studies conducted at Georgetown on the chocolate-cancer connection, does not mean that people who eat chocolate will either reduce their cancer risks or treat a current case. The research is too new to make any definitive conclusions.

Remember, most of the chocolate you see next to the cash register, or down the candy isle, is not even what we like to consider "chocolate". Real chocolate is actually bitter, and substantially more expensive then "candy" chocolate, therefore, most mass-producers of "candy" chocolate will use other cocoa substitutes to cut costs and the chocolate is usually over processed with only minimal traces of antioxidants and flavanoids. The truth is "candy" chocolate is packed full of sugar, and that's the reason people love it so much. As we've discussed over and over again in our past articles, sugar has a negative impact on the human body and health in general.

It is okay to have a "cheat day" on occasion, so if you're craving a piece of chocolate, purchase a high quality, unsweetened, dark form of chocolate!

Source: Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University in Washington, published in the April 2005 issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.