Chocolate High with Coffee

Good news for chocolate and coffee lovers out 

there! 

              Are you the type of person who splurges much on chocolates? Do you spoil yourself by always granting your cravings for Cadburry ad Hershey’s kisses? Are you even drinking coffee while reading this? Well, if yes, then you sure do love yourself so much. You are not only satisfying your cravings but also defending your health.

There was a research conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom, which shows that a group of caffeine-like compounds found in chocolate and coffee may help fight heart disease and cancer. Doctors were able o find that both foods contain compounds including caffeine and a substance called theophylline, in test-tube studies. They had discovered that these compounds help block the mechanism that causes disease-triggering inflammation. A drug based on the finding is anticipated to be developed by the researchers.

Although this information may indeed lead some of us to chocolate high, we still have to bear in mind that “too much of something is bad enough”. These are sweets we’re talking about, and too much of this can increase you blood glucose level, which would eventually lead to diabetes. And of course, nobody wants to have plaques and cavities, right? Well, not unless you regularly brush your teeth. Too much caffeine is also bad for the health, like hyperactivity isn't disturbing enough. Moderation is always safe.

Image from darkchocolate.org.uk/

                This is also good news for me since I can’t go on working mode without a cup of two of caffeine serving. However, there still have been published articles stating that too much of caffeine is really not healthy. In fact, it can also be fattening. Aside from its caloric content, which I think not that much, it also increases cortisol, hormones in our body that is triggered by stress; well it’s a stress hormone. Don’t worry I will get back to this topic here again soon. Anyway, the bottom point is that coffee says to cause cortisol jolt, which disrupts our body’s metabolism causing elevated blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and increased body fat levels. So coffee and also some chocolates can be considered culprits.

So, should I be agonizing or rejoicing on this?

Well, it depends on your approach. What I mean is, the way you live and manage your lifestyle. We drink our coffee during a meal, in our office, or along with other sedentary day to day activities. These things could definitely aggravate the fact on how stress hormones and the added trigger caused by caffeine intakes would be relatively true. We can still enjoy our cups of coffee and bars of chocolate, if we can compensate our consumptions with daily exercise and monitoring our diet. In this way, we both gain pleasure on what we love without suffering from the consequences it might bring.