Eat, Drink
and BE Merry
As it now
turns out, coffee, chocolate and wine are actually good for you
IT HAS LONG been my
fantasy that science would one day discover that all the stuff we enjoy eating
and drinking – potato chips, chocolate, red wine, coffee – is good for us. And
that all the stuff that we loathe – salad, low-fat dressing, green tea, and
other such ‘healthy’ options – is actually bad for us. Well, this week I am
happy to report that we are halfway there.
A recent study conducted
by the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Warwick Medical School, the University
of South Australia and the University of Maine (Phew! It takes a global village
to bring you good news these days), found that those who ate 100 gms of
chocolate a day – equivalent to a bar – had reduced insulin resistance and
improved liver enzymes. And since insulin resistance is often a precursor to
diabetes, which is a risk factor in cardiovascular health, having a chocolate
bar could potentially be better for your health than glugging glasses of
wheatgrass (that bit of extrapolation is entirely mine, not to be laid at the
door of those worthy professors!). In fact, the same study also looked at the
consumption of chocolate alongside tea and coffee. Both these drinks are high
in polyphenols, a substance that exists in chocolate and makes it beneficial to
cardio and metabolic health. So, the best thing you can do is eat your
chocolate with a nice steaming cup of coffee or tea. But don’t celebrate just
yet. This is not a licence to cut a generous slice of chocolate cake or even
tear open a bar of Snickers at snack time. The kind of chocolate that is good
for you is one that is closest to the natural product, cocoa; not the
processed, sugar-heavy stuff that is stocked in your fridge. So yes to dark
chocolate bars with a high cocoa content; no to milk chocolate with industrial
quantities of sugar and fat added to it. Okay, I admit, this is not ideal. But
I will take it. Especially since it comes close on the heels of another bit of
good news. A joint study carried out by researchers from Belgium and the Netherlands
on gut bacteria concluded that diversity – in terms of having many different
kinds of bacteria – was good for your gut, and hence, for your health. And one
way of increasing that diversity was to drink red wine and coffee.
Red wine has always had
its cheerleaders, who credit it with doing everything from reducing cholesterol
to bettering cardiovascular health. It is rich in antioxidants, such as
quercetin and resveratrol, which play a part in reducing the risk of cancer and
heart disease. And red wine is credited with playing a major part in the famous
‘French paradox’, which refers to the fact that while the French eat more dairy
and fat, their rates of heart diseases are much lower than, say, those of
Americans.
Red wine is also an
essential element in the so-called Mediterranean diet, which is widely believed
to be the healthiest way to eat and drink your way to a long and happy life.
Have a glass or two (low to moderate consumption is the key; drink the way
Europeans do, no British-style binge-drinking) along with a diet high in
fruits, vegetables, unrefined cereals, lots of fish, very little red meat, and
lots of olive oil, and you are good to go for another few decades.
But while you clearly
can’t go wrong with red wine (so long as you remember to drink only a couple of
glasses), coffee too has been getting good press of late. An American Diabetes
Association study last year found ‘strong’ evidence that drinking six cups of
coffee per day could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 33 per cent for both
men and women. However, the results were the same with both caffeinated and
decaffeinated coffee, so it is unlikely that the magic ingredient is caffeine.
But either way, I’ll take it (black and with just a splash of Stevia, thank
you). Especially since coffee seems to offer other health benefits as well.
There is evidence that it increases dopamine production in the brain, which
explains why you feel so good after that first cup of coffee in the morning.
Studies have shown that those drinking four cups of coffee a day had an 11 per
cent lower risk of heart failure. And high coffee consumption has also been
linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s, though this benefit seems to be limited
to men. (Coffee? Sexist? Who knew?)
So, this Sunday morning,
as I sip on my fourth cup of an Italian roast and decant a nice bottle of a
light fruity red so that it is ready to drink by the time lunch is served, I
send up a silent prayer: Please God, make goji berries and quinoa evil, and
turn potatoes into the next superfood. And cheese. Oh yes, please don’t forget
cheese!
SEEMA GOSWAMI
HTBR8MAY16
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