232. Dark Chocolate, Is It Good For You?

Transcript Of Today's Episode

Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by Martinclinic.com. During the episode the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.

Dr. Martin Sr: One of the questions I get asked very frequently is whether, especially from women, is whether they should consume chocolate. I want to [00:00:30] talk about that today because chocolate of course if you look at dark chocolate for example, it's got a lot of benefits. I often laugh because one of the questions that I ask when they come into the office, I talk about their adrenal glands and one of the questions on the questionnaire is whether they get cravings for sugar and then women will often tell me, well [00:01:00] it's craving really for chocolate and that's a sign, by the way, if you really crave it, that your adrenals might be exhausted, but let's go over that. I have one right here. Okay. This is a 95 chocolate. My wife calls this Exlax because she said how can you eat that?

Dr. Martin Sr: Okay, but I want to read the label to you. This is [00:01:30] 95% okay? It only has in 2.5 servings are four pieces. So if you have four pieces of this, okay, so I'll cut off a piece here. Let's see what the piece would look like because they've got it in squares. So I'll cut off one here. And so one piece, if you were to eat one piece of this, this is 95%. It has one gram of sugar and one gram of [00:02:00] added sugars. So in 95%, in one piece, you get a two grams of sugar. Okay? So that's not a lot of sugar, but it certainly adds up and that's 95% dark chocolate.

Dr. Martin Sr: Now dark chocolate compared to milk chocolate that you would find in a chocolate bar and I know at Costco for example, they have chocolate, dark chocolate covered almonds. [00:02:30] But when you read how many sugars are added to that, it's incredible.

Dr. Martin Sr: So let me just talk about the advantages of chocolate and then I'll talk to you about the disadvantages. Okay. So the advantages of dark chocolate are about three or four reasons that you could have. One, they're a powerful antioxidant. Okay. So you know, as we talk at the Martin Clinic about aging of the body, we literally rust out. I mean, that's free radical damage and [00:03:00] so everybody has free radicals and of course you do. But because we were all aging, but antioxidants literally rust-proof yourselves. They coach yourself. So any antioxidants actually good for you. That's why fruits, for example, have lots of antioxidants. Vegetables have lots of antioxidants and chocolate has antioxidants. Now, one of the antioxidants that it has, it's [00:03:30] called the polyphenol. Okay? Appalling. Many multiple phenals that actually coach yourselves. So there's certainly an an advantage to eating chocolate.

Dr. Martin Sr: Now I'm talking specifically about dark chocolate because automatically you should never have milk chocolate under any circumstances. It's way too sweet. It's just way too sweet. The advantages that I'm talking about in chocolate [00:04:00] are found in dark chocolate, at least 70% but I might convince you even in this video, not to even go there for certain reasons, but let's continue with the benefits.

Dr. Martin Sr: They've shown that dark chocolate actually can improve your memory because of, again, it's antioxidant and polyphenol content. It elevates your nitric oxide. So some people [00:04:30] with dark chocolate, it actually helps to relax your blood vessels so your blood vessels will open up even more. And again, that's a benefit. There's nothing wrong with that. Helps with your mood. Dark chocolate helps with your mood. It actually increases some of the biochemicals, the feel good biochemicals in your brain, and it can be helpful. So nothing, nothing wrong with [00:05:00] that. That's actually good.

Dr. Martin Sr: So if I have a piece of dark chocolate, you get four or five advantages from eating it. Remember, never, never, never, never milk chocolate, but I want to give you the downside.

Dr. Martin Sr: When you think about it, even my practice has changed extremely since the 1970s. It's been a massive change. Hormonally, insulin is a hormone. One of the biggest issues, and we talk about this all the time, [00:05:30] is insulin and the vast majority of people, well, you know I did a podcast on this awhile back. I talked about only 12% of the population are metabolically stable, meaning that they don't have metabolic syndrome. What's metabolic syndrome? It's insulin. You've got insulin resistance. Your liver is full of glycogen because you're a [00:06:00] carboholic and you have too many sugars.

Dr. Martin Sr: I always talk about reading labels because of hidden sugars and even in chocolate, even in this dark chocolate that my wife says tastes terrible. I had some and it's kind of bitter a little bit. 95%; 70% is certainly better or 80% is better tasting because it's got [00:06:30] more sugar in it. It's not the chocolate. Cocoa is the bean, it's all right. There's nothing wrong with it, but they add sugar to make it taste good. That's why I love coffee, by the way, because coffee without sugar is tremendous for you for the same reasons that I talked to you about chocolate. Coffee, the coffee bean is even better. It does more things, including [00:07:00] reducing your risk of cancer and esophageal and pancreatic and bowel, colon cancer. Those three cancers is like Metformin, the drug, it actually helps to lower your insulin. That's why when you go to a restaurant or whatever, when you're eating, have a cup of coffee with your meal.

Dr. Martin Sr: Now the problem with coffee is what are you adding in it? Are you adding sugars? [00:07:30] Well, that'll add up. You know, you say, "Well, Doc, it's only one sugar or two sugars." Yeah, but how many coffees are you having a day and then add that up over a period of time. So it's the same, the same argument for chocolate.

Dr. Martin Sr: Look, chocolate on its own, the bean, the dark chocolate it's good for you. It's got advantages. We live in a different world, so we have to [00:08:00] look at the advantages of chocolate versus the disadvantages of it and the disadvantages of it is the sugars are adding up and so if you have trouble, if you're part of the 88% not part of the 12% but part of the 88%, guys, I got to tell you something about Doctor Martin.

Dr. Martin Sr: If I don't watch myself every day and I [00:08:30] just go off the rails, even for just a couple of days, I am in that 88% of having trouble with my metabolism. I get into insulin resistance very quickly. I know myself, so I don't fight. I try and justify. I'm married to an Italian, so I love pasta, I do, but I can't live on it. You have no idea. Rosie. I try [00:09:00] when we go to the grocery stores because I'm always reading labels. I want to see what's in that food. I want to see the sugars especially, and for me, I try and avoid sugar like the plague and so I could have I guess a piece of this dark chocolate and it's only got one or two gram a piece. Here would have two grams of sugars, which isn't much, but there's other ways of getting antioxidants, [00:09:30] okay, and that's all I'm saying.

Dr. Martin Sr: I'm not saying that dark chocolate isn't necessarily good for you. It has a lot of advantages. It's certainly a lot better than milk chocolate but when we live in a world where the average North American is consuming somewhere around 200 pounds of sugar a year, think about that. That is incredible. So everything that you do to get rid of sugars, it's just, and these are habits. So, [00:10:00] ladies, I know women, especially if they have adrenal exhaustion, they go by Laura Secord's and they want to do a swan dive. They have such a craving.

Dr. Martin Sr: One of the things too, by the way, that's you're often deficient in if you really crave chocolate, is a mineral called magnesium. It's one of the signs that you are low in magnesium is if you crave chocolate. Well, guess when you're low in magnesium? [00:10:30] When your adrenal glands, if you got adrenals, if you're secreted a lot of cortisol over a period of time, if you're not sleeping properly, this is often you're deficient in magnesium. This is why magnesium is one of my foundational things. That's why I love peanut butter because peanut butters got a lot of magnesium. No, I like peanut butter because I like peanut butter and I talk about natural peanut butter. Not you know, not the stuff that is icing sugar. [00:11:00] Natural peanut butter, low in sugars. It's got one gram of sugar in a tablespoon. That's just in nature. It's not added sugar. It's just, it is.

Dr. Martin Sr: But again, you can't live on any sugars because sugars today we live in a different world. We live in a world full of sugar. It's in everything. It's in ketchup. It's in breads. It's in noodles. It's in a cereals, especially. [00:11:30] It's in yogurt. You have plain Jane yogurt, plain Jane meaning that Greek plain yogurt. It's got six grams of sugar; one and a half in a little container like that, one and a half teaspoons of sugar. Yeah, it adds up.

Dr. Martin Sr: So if you're starting your day with that, do you see what I'm saying? So the question is, can you have [00:12:00] dark chocolate? Yes. In a very limited way, if you're anything like me and the rest of my patients. So again, if you're trying to lose weight, I wouldn't have any dark chocolate if you're trying to lose weight. Okay. Because again, those sugars are going to be stored as fats. And again, it's [00:12:30] not that this is not a good food in a vast majority of time, the dark chocolate would be in terms of a health food, really. You could call it a health food, but I don't know. Here we are coming on 2020, and I have to say to you, the world has changed and I really get my patients to simply read labels.

Dr. Martin Sr: If you do nothing else and cut out your sugars as [00:13:00] much as possible, then you are doing the right thing. If you do nothing else, eliminate sugars. It will have a a profound impact on your health. So these things are very, very, very important. So should I eat dark chocolate? Maybe have some magnesium instead. Okay. Should I eat dark chocolate? Well, not if you're about [00:13:30] 88% of the population. If you're part of that with any type of metabolic syndrome. What is metabolic syndrome? Insulin resistance, belly fat, anybody with high blood pressure.

Dr. Martin Sr: See, what are the benefits of dark chocolate? If you read about it, it lowers your blood pressure. It can help because it relaxes your blood vessels. It elevates your nitric oxide. You know what nitric oxide is? It's an explosion. It helps [00:14:00] to relax the blood vessels so that your blood flow.

Dr. Martin Sr: So dark chocolate, it's actually helpful. But think about it. Where does high blood pressure come from? It doesn't come from a lack of chocolate or dark chocolate, but you know where it really comes from? People that have high blood pressure. I said, "Well, you know what? You have insulin resistance. You have metabolic syndrome. High blood pressure is metabolic syndrome. It's caused by [00:14:30] number one food. It's insulin. It's crappy carbs and sugar." So again, you might get the benefit of lowering your blood pressure by eating a limited amount of dark chocolate but is it really an advantage if you already have trouble with blood pressure? You're better off to eat a piece of meat with no sugars in it.

Dr. Martin Sr: So I just wanted to do a little teaching on [00:15:00] that. So you know, you've got to sort of answer those questions for yourself and in a very limited amount, okay. I mean, dark chocolate is good for you, I guess. But again, I just wanted to bring some clarity when you see studies that talk where there's good for it and yeah, but okay. And so thanks for watching.

Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast with your hosts, [00:15:30] Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.

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