by: Bert Middleton
If your doctor gave you a list of foods to avoid when you have gout, no doubt chocolate is near the top of the list. This is because almost all chocolate available in grocery stores, and even health food stores, is simply candy that barely contains any real cacao, and often comes with other ingredients such as high-fructose-corn-syrup and artificial preservatives, which can be inflammation triggers.
And there’s another problem. Flavonoids in cacao can be destroyed when cacao is processed at high temperatures in order to turn it into cocoa powder, the main ingredient in most brands of chocolate. Chocolate remains a “superfood” only if it contains a high percentage of pure raw cacao that was heated at low temperatures in order to preserve the flavonoids.
Unfortunately, many brands of dark chocolate, including Godiva, Ghirardelli, Hershey’s, and even Dagoba have all undergone a very high heat treatment that has destroyed most of the flavonoids. Chocolate produced with high heat does NOT have the medicinal potency you need for gout relief and is NOT part of an effective diet for gout.
The Chocolate That Ended My Gout
There are very few companies that take the time to process cacao with a low level of heat so that flavonoids remain intact. I was lucky enough to find one of them as I began my chocolate experiment, and now I am happy to share this information with you. Click here for more information about the Xobiotic chocolate I eat, and the other raw-cacao chocolate products that can easily become part of your gout-killing efforts. Your body will thank you.
Chocolate and Gout References:
The Journal of Nutrition: Chocolate: Modern Science Investigates an Ancient Medicine: Epicatechin in human plasma: in vivo determination and effect of chocolate consumption on plasma oxidation status.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: Survey of commercially available chocolate- and cocoa-containing products in the United States. Comparison of flavan-3-ol content with nonfat cocoa solids, total polyphenols, and percent cacao.
PubMed: Clinical benefit and preservation of flavonols in dark chocolate manufacturing.
The Basics: How Chocolate Helps To Relieve Gout
Bert’s Thoughts: Dark Chocolate Regimen
The Details: Not All Chocolate Is Created Equal