Over The Counter: Chocolate and caffeine – good news on the healthfront

Jeanne Calment is the French woman who lived the longest authenticated human life 122 years and 164 days.

While it seems that so much of longevity is tied to the genetic hand we are dealt at birth, we certainly can adopt and pursue lifestyles that improve our chances for living longer, or, for that matter, not spending as much time on earth as we could have had we taken a healthier route.

Much is made of Ms. Calments lifestyle and diet. Incredibly, she smoked until she was about 110 (science suggests Ms. Calment had a rare innate biological protection from the deleterious effects of the bad habit). Yet, she was also riding a bike until she was a 100 and she continued to walk until a few months short of her 115th birthday, when she broke her femur.

Ms. Calment, who died in 1997, said she did not get stressed about too much. Her regular diet included olive oil, port wine and get ready up to two pounds of chocolate a week, only giving up the sweet when she had reached the age of 119.

Could chocolate have had something to do with that amazing life span?

Perhaps, yes, maybe a little bit. And chocolate is a sweeter excuse the pun alternative to other life extending therapies.

We are finding out more almost every day about the health benefits of chocolate and of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate.

What is it in chocolate that is good for us?

Chocolate especially dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids. Clinical research has shown that flavonoids can reduce and prevent cardiovascular damage and lower blood pressure.

Science also supports that dark chocolate flavonoids have a positive effect on blood cholesterol pushing the bad form down, and raising the good form.

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Over The Counter: Chocolate and caffeine - good news on the healthfront