It’s very satisfying to be able to occasionally report on the good news about chocolate. In addition to just tasting good and elevating mood, studies keep showing it provides health benefits by being rich in antioxidants and phenols.

A report in the April 9 issue of JAMA highlights a meta-analysis of previously published trials involving cocoa products and tea. Both cocoa and tea contain polyphenols, which are known to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and blood pressure.

Based on the results of these trials - five involving cocoa products and five involving tea consumption - researchers at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, concluded that cocoa products, especially dark chocolate, lowered blood pressure levels comparably to blood pressure medication.
Consumption of tea had no effect on blood pressure.

Researchers conclude that it is a difference in the types of phenols contained in the two products that leads to the varying effectiveness - black and green tea contain more compounds known as flavan-3-ols, cocoa contains more of another type of polyphenol, procyanids.

They aren’t recommending widespread consumption of cocoa products to lower blood pressure, mainly because those foods usually also contain high amounts of fat and sugar. Still, dark chocolate is recommended as a better choice than other high-fat or high-calorie desserts.

“Rationally applied, cocoa products might be considered part of dietary approaches to lower hypertension risk”, the authors conclude.

Cocoa, But Not Tea, May Lower Blood Pressure

I was talking to a friend the other day. She was telling me about her new experiences with night sweats and hot flashes, wondering if they signaled the beginning of menopause. “Try soy supplements”, I told her confidently, having read and written about research that indicates soy phytoestrogens cool hot flashes.

I realized that, in writing for Fifty-Something Women, I end up learning a lot of important information and occasionally just some fun facts.

For instance, during coffee breaks at work I often go outside despite the cold to soak up some of the sun’s rays. I figure this will banish the specter of S.A.D. as well as boost my cancer-fighting level of Vitamin D.

I learned how to read my nutrition labels and why doing so can help me avoid Sadness Snacking and the dangers of comfort foods.

It comes in handy too, when I can point out that my second cup of coffee is really a diabetes preventative in disguise or when I mention that the danish I am having with it is only to add those few extra pounds that will stave off menopause symptoms.

Okay, so maybe I also look for a few excuses but everyone needs a few excuses in life if they want to enjoy it at all. Life, as we know, must be taken with a grain of chocolate.

The stuff those scientists get up to over at MIT is amazing. Researchers at MIT Sloan School of Management and Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford have found a way to predict what someone will purchase by using functional MRI to show which brain regions are being activated when they view products and prices. This is a blockbuster study in the emerging field of neuroeconomics (I bet you didn’t even know there was such an emerging field).

…by studying which regions were activated, the authors were able to successfully predict whether the study participants would decide to purchase each item. Activations of the regions associated with product preference and with weighing gains and losses indicated that a person would decide to purchase a product. In contrast, when the region associated with excessive prices was activated participants chose not to buy a product.

Of course, this research seems mainly to deal with helping us understand what motivates us to buy and probably will help retailers overcome the brain bits that are responsible for our frugality. But what if instead of neuroeconomics they turned this technology to dieting?

Imagine, scientists map out the part of the brain responsible for eating chocolate cake and set up transmitters that could alert a main system that your brain is making your mouth water. Immediately, receptors implanted in the part of the brain that are responsible for willpower are activated, so that when your salivating mouth opens to consume the chocolate cake, instead it voices a resounding “No!, No!, No!”. Within just a few weeks you would be able to activate the part of your brain that wanted to buy those leather pants.

I guess science isn’t ready to deal with important issues like that yet.

Researchers use brain scans to predict when people will buy products

According to Compellis Pharmaceuticals, soon you could spray away extra poundage.

The Boston company has been issued an initial patent to test a new nasal spray. But this spray has nothing to do with sinus conditions. The spray will block the senses of taste and smell.

The theory is that you can’t crave what you can’t smell or taste. The spray is a calcium channel blocker that would block the sense of smell. I suppose that if you reduce the pleasure of taste then foods become less appealing and the user consumes less.

But we are also visual creatures and not all food triggers stem from being able to smell the aroma. Sensory memories, memories that associate certain foods with feelings of well-being or foods that remind us of good times, these cravings come from deeper within us. Personally, I think I can gain weight just looking at the pictures of desserts in magazines. And what about chocolate? The craving for chocolate is almost certainly a survival strategy that nature built into women.

The company will begin testing the nasal spray on people next year.

Read the article in The Boston Globe