Good News for Those Who Eat Chocolate With Their Tea
That chocolate bar you are eyeing longingly might actually help you fight off heart disease and even cancer, especially if it is dark chocolate, according to Dutch researchers. It’s even better if you have a cup of tea with it.
The key in both cases is a group of chemicals called catechins, which have strong antioxidant properties. Antioxidants sponge up highly reactive forms of oxygen in the body, protecting us from damage. Vitamins E and C are other naturally occurring antioxidants.
Researchers have long known that the beneficial properties of tea arise largely from catechins. A team from the National Institute of Public Health and Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, has now made the first measurement of their levels in chocolate.
They reported in Saturday’s Lancet that dark chocolate contains 53.5 milligrams of catechins per 100 grams, compared to 15.9 milligrams in the same amount of light chocolate. By contrast, 100 milliliters of black tea contains 13.9 milligrams. In a survey of Dutch nationals, the team found that most people get about 55% of their catechins from tea and 20% from chocolate. The rest comes from other dietary sources.
Supplements Fall Short as a Vitamin E Source
If you are concerned about heart disease but don’t like fish, you can get the benefits of seafood by taking capsules containing polyunsaturated fatty acids, or PUFA. But if you want the benefits of vitamin E, you need to eat fruits and vegetables that are rich in the vitamin, because supplements don’t provide much help, according to a major study of the two supplements conducted in Italy.
Previous studies in Eskimos who consume a lot of fish have shown a strong heart benefit produced by the PUFA in seafood, and other studies have shown benefits from the vitamin E in food. The study was designed to test the value of supplements. The researchers enrolled 11,324 subjects who had recently had a heart attack and gave them supplements of either vitamin E, PUFA, both together, or no supplements at all.
They reported in Saturday’s Lancet that subjects taking PUFA alone or in association with vitamin E had a 14% lower overall risk of death and a 17% to 20% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease compared to those taking no supplements. Those taking only vitamin E, however, had no decrease in the risk of death.
Certain Chinese Herbs May Damage the Liver
Chinese herbal preparations used to treat the skin condition eczema can cause severe liver damage, according to another report in Lancet. The culprit is most likely aristolochic acid, which has previously been shown to damage the kidney. Aristolochic acid is found in Aristolochia manshuriensis, which is occasionally used incorrectly as a substitute for the Chinese plant MuTong. More than 100 people in Belgium have been found to have similar liver damage caused by inclusion of Aristolochia species in herbal diet drugs.
Dr. Graham M. Lord and his colleagues at the Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals in London identified two women, ages 49 and 57, who had severe liver damage. Both had been using herbal preparations for eczema, and analysis of the herbs showed the presence of aristolochic acid. The younger woman has already had a liver transplant and the second woman is awaiting one. The women were the first cases identified in Britain, and the doctors fear that others may have slipped by unrecognized.
In a related issue, a report from Lancet three weeks ago indicated that eating fruits from the papaw family or drinking herbal teas can cause symptoms like those of Parkinson’s disease. The report should have made clear that the teas in question contained plant materials from the pawpaw family, such as Annona squamosa, which is used as a purgative or as an aphrodisiac, and Annona muricata, used as a sedative.
Exposure to Pesticides Said to Reduce Fertility
Occupational exposure to pesticides can reduce a man’s ability to father a child, according to Dutch researchers. The new study, also in Lancet, adds to the growing concern over the hormonal effects of pesticides.
The researchers studied 836 couples who sought in vitro fertilization between 1991 and 1998. They found that the rate of successful fertilization declined as the exposure to pesticides increased. Among the men in the group with the highest exposure to the chemicals, the fertilization success rate was only 22% of that among men with no exposure. Because the subjects had been exposed to a broad variety of pesticides, however, the team was unable to link the infertility to any specific chemical.
In a related finding, researchers at Michigan State University have found that female rats exposed to pesticide-like chemicals called PCBs while still fetuses have low sex drives as adults, according to New Scientist magazine. The chemicals can mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen and, when exposure occurs at crucial stages of development, can “defeminize” the rat fetuses, the researchers said.
Study Says DARE Fails to Lower Kids’ Drug Use
Kids exposed to the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program are as likely to use drugs and alcohol 10 years later than those never enrolled in the program, according to a report in the August Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. DARE proponents, however, charged that the study was poorly designed and that the DARE program has undergone significant changes since the study’s children were enrolled in it.
Psychologist Donald R. Lynam of the University of Kentucky based the research on questionnaires answered by 1,002 young Midwestern men and women who had taken a 17-week introductory DARE course 10 years earlier in elementary school. Drug and alcohol abuse rates in the group were similar to those in young people who had not taken the course.
Proponents argue that the program is much more effective when youths take not only the introductory elementary school course, but also follow-up programs in middle and high school.
An unpublished study conducted at Ohio State University has found that those who take the complete regimen are 50% less likely to become high-risk abusers of drugs and alcohol.
DARE was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983 and has since spread to schools throughout the country.
The program has evolved dramatically over the years, experts on both sides of the argument agree, making accurate assessment of long-term results difficult.
Medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II can be reached at thomas.maugh@latimes.com.
