Bone Health and Cocoa
Growing up, we all drink plenty of milk to benefit from its calcium content, a building block for strong bones. Nutrition plays a significant part in maintaining strong bones throughout our lives, helping to ensure we prevent them from damage and injury. Strong bones are imperative to supporting the rest of our organs because they form skeletal protection.
Calcium, copper, vitamin D, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, and zinc are some nutrients required for maintaining bone strength. Many foods contain one or more of these essential nutrients. Interestingly, dark chocolate may not contain much calcium, but it contains everything else, making it an excellent and tasty addition to our diet.
I don’t hear anyone complaining about that! The reason is that chocolate is a much-loved treat for most people. However, do all chocolates have the same bone health benefits?
Maintaining Bone Mass
Before discovering which chocolate to prefer for bone health, here’s what scientists have to say:
Maintaining bone mass requires the dissolution of old bone and the production of new bone mass. Creating new bone mass is faster when we are young, peaking at around age 30 when our bones have the most density and strength.
After age 50, the process starts to reverse, and our bodies break down bone faster than they renew it. In women, bone mass loss can reach up to 2% annually from this age onward. Proper nutrition throughout life is vital to prevent osteoporosis, where bones become so brittle that they can break with the smallest amount of stress.
Foods for Maintaining Bone Health
Dairy products play a crucial role since the body needs calcium as we age. However, these should be fortified with vitamin D to improve calcium absorption. Fatty fish is also a good source of calcium and vitamin D. Vegans don’t need to fret because they can add calcium to their diet by eating green leafy vegetables and seeds like poppy and chia.
The body also needs magnesium, which is found in dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Whole grains and chocolate also have good phosphorus levels, a nutrient that works well with magnesium to assist calcium absorption.
Chocolate is full of surprises since researchers have established that it can play a vital role in maintaining bone health.
Eating Cocoa for Bone Health
Understanding cocoa and bone health requires knowing that not all chocolate is good for bone health. The more processed the cocoa, the more sugar, hydrogenated fats, artificial flavors, and preservatives it contains. These chocolates cannot help our overall health or bone mass.
However, raw cacao and chocolate containing at least 70% cocoa are tremendous for our health. The reason is that they contain no artificial additives or sugar while maintaining the highest levels of cocoa’s beneficial phytochemicals and antioxidants.
The primary bone-building nutrients found in chocolate include:
Catechins stimulate osteoblast activity and perform several other bodily roles, especially from a sub-branch known as epicatechins.
Oligomeric procyanidins improve bone mass and are found in higher concentrations in chocolate than in other foods like cranberries and green tea.
Resveratrol improves balance and motor coordination. However, it also plays a significant role in improving bone density.
In addition to these bone-building substances, chocolate contains iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and selenium. Dark chocolate and other products containing cocoa are also a dietary source of vitamin D, known as vitamin D2.
Some argue that chocolate contains oxalates that bind to minerals like calcium, making it less bioavailable. However, research has shown that when eating a small amount of chocolate daily, oxalate levels are lower than in other foods high in them, including beets, kale, and spinach.
Adding Cocoa to Your Diet
Evidence of cocoa’s nutritional value continues to pile up, making you feel less guilty about adding it to your diet. The less processed, the better it is for you. Dark chocolate contains the most cocoa solids of all chocolates, providing a high content of flavonoids and nutrients. Include chocolate with at least 70% or more cocoa solids in your diet. Besides cocoa solids, dark chocolate contains cocoa butter and sugar but no milk. You can eat about an ounce a day or add chunks of dark chocolate to your favorite cookies or health bars.
If you prefer to omit the sugar, add raw cocoa powder to beverages, smoothies, puddings, granola bars, or sprinkled over fruit.
Finally, what is the best time for eating chocolate? So far, research shows that when we eat chocolate in the morning, it helps to regulate blood sugar levels, boost our energy, maintain bone strength, and enhance our concentration and efficiency. Do you need any further evidence for starting your day with a piece of dark chocolate?
Choosing the Best Cocoa or Chocolate
Knowing where to get the best is crucial to enjoying all the bone-strengthening properties of cocoa or dark chocolate.
Firstly, if you are buying dark chocolate, look for one that only contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter with a bit of sugar. It should contain no other ingredients. The higher the cocoa content, the better the quality of the dark chocolate. Aim for a minimum of 70%, but set your goal higher if you can tolerate a bar of more bitter chocolate. It is an acquired taste, but you will never look back once you get used to it.
Secondly, processed cocoa powder has a smoother flavor because the natural acidity of cocoa is reduced with an alkalizing agent. Raw cocoa is not processed, creating a higher-quality cocoa powder that retains more antioxidants and nutrients. Therefore, if you prefer using cocoa powder, it’s a no-brainer to look for raw cocoa to add to your meals.
Finally, the price of high-quality cocoa powder or dark chocolate increases, but you know you are getting a significantly more effective product than the mainstream cocoa products on the market.
Cocoa lovers have one more reason to stop considering their chocolate habit as a guilty pleasure. Its benefits to bone health are convincing, especially if you don’t overdo it. Add that piece of dark chocolate to our breakfast, and you won’t regret it but don’t forget to include bone-building nutrients in all your other meals.