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Concern About Caffeine in Chocolate?
Barbara Quinn
Posted Mar 9, 2010
More questions from readers in honor of National Nutrition Month "Nutrition from the ground up":
"Dear Barbara, I just read your wonderful article on the benefits of chocolate in today's Florida Times-Union and I wonder about the caffeine content in chocolate. I have always heard that chocolate contains caffeine, and I know one of the benefits you cite is the relaxation of blood vessels in the head. Would you please comment? --Julie M, Jacksonville, Fla.
Dear Julie,
I wrote that "natural substances contained in cocoa powder help arteries relax and thus lower blood pressure." These substances appear to be the antioxidant "polyphenols" in cocoa, not the caffeine.
According to the National Institutes of Health, caffeine does not relax blood vessels; it causes them to constrict. That is why caffeine sometimes helps control pounding migraine headaches.
Chocolate is actually fairly low in caffeine content. One ounce of dark chocolate contains about 20 milligrams of caffeine; 1 ounce of milk chocolate contains about 6 milligrams. By comparison, an 8-ounce cup of coffee has 100-200 milligrams of caffeine, depending on how strong you like it.
So, it's not the caffeine, but the polyphenols in cocoa beans that have been shown to relax arteries (and maybe contribute to headaches in folks who are sensitive.) Coffee beans contain these substances, too, which may explain a new study that found coffee drinking lowered the risk for stroke...even if people drank decaffeinated coffee.
Keep those nutrition questions coming in March...National Nutrition Month!
Date: Mar 7, 2010
(Barbara Quinn is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. E-mail her at bquinn@chomp.org.)
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© 2010, The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.). Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
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