Transcript 1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are (continued)

Health experts
You are totally dedicated to ensuring that our
population stays healthy. Your mission is to persuade
people that eating chocolate is harmful to their
health and that they should stop eating it now!
To accomplish your mission you will be required to;
1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are
2. Find out how much chocolate the UK eats and compare it with other countries
(involves some maths)
Then you need to do this:
 Use your evidence to put together a convincing argument to persuade people to
stop eating chocolate
Where can you find information?:
Your group has access to this information pack and a computer so that you can do
extended research
Health experts – KS3
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1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are
The Risks of Excess Dark Chocolate
Because you have been made aware of the health benefits of dark chocolate, don't go overboard and
indulge completely in it, as the benefits of dark chocolate can only be derived if it is consumed in
moderation. An excess of dark chocolate can lead to the following problems:
 Eating dark chocolate can harden the tooth enamel, but an excess is definitely going to result in
some amount of cavities.
 Dark chocolate contains caffeine, an excess of which can cause anxiety, high blood pressure,
headaches, and even digestive problems.
 Too much dark chocolate can also result in kidney stones, because it contains oxalates.
 The calories in dark chocolate can contribute to weight gain and even obesity to an extent.
It is important to remember that the key to deriving the health benefits of every food item is to
consume it in moderation. The importance of dark chocolate nutrition has already been made clear, but
do not avoid other foods such as fruits and vegetables and consume only dark chocolate thinking it is as
healthy. Variety is the spice of life, and a little bit of everything is what will keep you going, not an
excess of just one of them!
The short-term decrease of some medical problems associated with high flavonoid intake is eventually
offset by steadily increasing copper levels, which,by inhibiting flavonoid activity, will over time
promote an increase in cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, joint degeneration, and
other conditions.
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Health experts – KS3
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1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are (continued)
Health: Overindulgence of chocolate has been linked to some overweight cases and could result in the
onset of diabetes. Some researchers have also found the stearic acid, found in chocolate, may
promote blood clots. So it is important to regulate the amount you consume.
Addiction: Many food scientists have reported chocolate to be the single most craved food.
Chocolate has been found to trigger parts of the brain that are associated with drug addiction. The
phenomena of chocolate craving is still poorly understood and it is yet to be found if addiction is a
sensory or a pharmacological effect.
"Our study confirms long-held suspicions that eating chocolate is something that people do when they
are feeling down," said Dr. Golomb. "Because it was a cross sectional study, meaning a slice in time, it
did not tell us whether the chocolate decreased or intensified the depression." Golomb and her
colleagues examined the relationship of chocolate consumption to mood in an adult study sample of
about 1,000 subjects who were not on antidepressant medications and did not have any known
cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Participants were asked questions regarding how many servings
of chocolate they ate in a week, and were screened using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies
Depression Scale (CES-D) to measure mood. The researchers found that both men and women who
had higher depression scores consumed almost 12 servings of chocolate per month, those with lesser
depression scores ate about eight servings of chocolate per month, and those with no depression had
five servings per month. No differentiation was made between dark and milk chocolate; a medium
serving of chocolate was one ounce (25g), which is slightly less than an average chocolate candy bar.
"The findings did not appear to be explained by a general increase in caffeine, fat, carbohydrates or
energy intake, suggesting that our findings are specific to chocolate," said Golomb. There was also no
difference in the consumption of other antioxidant-rich foods, such as fish, coffee, fruits and
vegetables between those with depression and those without.
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Health experts – KS3
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1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are (continued)
How reliable are all these "Studies?"
When taking a closer look, one discovers that once the studies funded by chocolate interest groups
were discarded, the ones left offered conflicting results. As expected, some isolated compounds in
cocoa did however show certain health benefits. Because it is a common practice in nutritional
research to do studies on food fractions, outcomes may sometimes appear negative because they
are done without any co-factors or complexed nutrients, however in the case of cocoa, some of the
research was positive because those "co-factors" (all the other detrimental ingredients in
chocolate) were not part of the study.
If people were to consume pure cocoa, they might indeed be able to enjoy a few health benefits,
including a positive effect on blood pressure and glucose metabolism, however the majority of
people eat processed chocolate with all the other less desirable ingredients (i.e. added sugar, corn
syrup, milk fats / dairy cream, hydrogenated oils, etc.), and where the actual cocoa content may be
less than 20%, so unless premium dark chocolate is consumed, and one does not suffer from copper
overload (see further below), all bets regarding chocolate being a healthy food are off.
Placebo-controlled trials showed that some of the chemicals in chocolate (phenylethylamine,
theobromine, or caffeine), can indeed trigger migraines by altering cerebral blood flow and
releasing norepinephrine in some of those prone to suffer from migraine headaches. Of all of the
foods isolated that triggered the most attacks, chocolate was an offender about 30% of the time.
Claiming that ‘eating moderate amounts of chocolate increases one’s life span’ is a most interesting
example of how some researchers will twist and manipulate statistics to prove anything!
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Health experts – KS3
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1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are (continued)
"Chocolate-Is-Good-For-You" campaigns through the media or the prominent placement of leaflets
at confectionery counters keep feeding the consumer "made-to-order" research results whose
outcome is pre- determined to satisfy an agenda (i.e. selling chocolate), with little relevance to
science or facts. Considering that nicotine has also shown some health benefits, particularly with
ulcerative colitis and Parkinson’s disease, would this be a reason to urge people to start smoking
tobacco?
From a nutritional perspective - the average milk chocolate product is no less a junk food than ice
cream or donuts, and it is equally unhealthy and fattening when large amounts are consumed on a
regular basis. While no one is trying to discourage people from enjoying an occasional chocolate
treat - urging consumers to increase their chocolate consumption for "Health Reasons" leaves
nutritional research less than credible, particularly when diabetes and obesity have become an outof-control global problem. When milk chocolate, or lower grade chocolate is consumed, part of the
total fat content of chocolate comes from milk fat or various other types of fat, which do create a
risk factor with cardiovascular disease. Despite the good news on cocoa not raising LDL cholesterol,
even dark chocolate is a very calorie-dense food, so while the fat content may not invite
cardiovascular disease from an atherogenic (arterial clogging) perspective, its regular consumption
will add a lot of extra calories to someone's daily total, and as a result still affect those who have
to watch their caloric intake. Nevertheless, being listed as the No.1 ingredient in many chocolate
products, sugar is unquestionably a worse culprit compared to the fat content when addressing the
effects of chocolate on someone’s overall health.
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Health experts – KS3
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1. Find out what the dangers of eating chocolate are (continued)
Sugar is a well-known cause, contributing, or aggravating factor with a host of medical conditions,
including heart disease, inflammatory conditions, immune system disorders, impaired phagocytosis,
mood disorders, insulin and blood sugar disorders, leukemia, dental caries, yeast infections, depletion
of essential nutrients, osteoporosis, obesity, and others. The high sugar content in chocolate
increases Chromium requirements (chromium is an associated trace mineral to copper). The resulting
high copper / low chromium ratio creates an increased risk for trabecular bone loss, and it can
trigger or worsen blood sugar-related, and/or inflammatory conditions that may include chronic tonsil
infections, rheumatoid-types of arthritis, or other problems of the immune system in prone
individuals. As is the case with other sweets - anything beyond a casual consumption of chocolate will
result in reduced, not improved health, without even going into some more immediate health concerns
that some individuals experience from consuming chocolate, such as allergic reactions, kidney stones,
fibrocystic breast disease, heartburn, migraine headaches. Nevertheless – in moderation,
chocolate can certainly be the sinful delight it was meant to be!
Suggested tasks:
1. Find the meanings of any words you are unsure of
2. List the side effects of eating chocolate
3. Research the symptoms of the conditions which you could get
Health experts – KS3
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2. Find out how much chocolate the UK eats and compare it with other countries
Country
Amount of
Chocolate
(Kg)
consumed
per head of
population
per year
Austria
6.92
9.1
Australia
5.6
21.7
Belgium
9.77
11.7
Brazil
1.38
--
Canada
2.96
14.3
China
0.12
--
Denmark
7.4
10
France
4.5
9.4
Germany
9.32
12.9
Italy
2.74
8.5
Japan
1.82
3.2
Norway
9.7
8.3
Poland
1.04
--
Switzerland
10.83
7.7
Slovakia
4.09
22.4
United
Kingdom
10.1
23
USA
5.18
30.6
Ranking in
the world
for
chocolate
consumption
% of
population
considered
obese
Ranking in
the world
for
obesity
Each of us in Britain eats the equivalent of
180 bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, the
nation's favourite brand, every year. Or to
put it another way, we guzzle 50 KitKats a
second!
People in Britain eat around 10 kilos of
chocolate each a year, and together, spend
£3 billion on cocoa confectionery.
Eighteen EU countries were among the
world’s top 26 chocolate confectioneries
consumers in 2007, ranking from 11.85 kg
eaten per capita in Ireland, to 4.5 kg in
France and 1.04 kg in Poland. The EU 27
consumed in total 2.5 million tons of
chocolate products that year, which
accounts for around half of the global
consumption world-wide
Suggested tasks:
1. Complete the table (rank top as 1)
2. Use the data to create a graph which
shows the link between chocolate
consumption and obesity
Health experts – KS3
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