As we speak I am biting into a delicious piece of Hershey’s milk chocolate. This has become part of my daily routine to help get me through the day since I don’t drink coffee. Now, there have been mixed reports over the last few years as to whether or not eating chocolate often is good for us or not but one thing that hasn’t been up for debate is that dark chocolate is healthier than milk chocolate. However, dark chocolate does not taste as good as milk chocolate as it is much more bitter and so most people like myself prefer milk chocolate. But soon that won’t matter because we may be able to create milk chocolate with the same health benefits as dark chocolate.
As Insider puts it:
“There may be a way to boost the nutritional value of milk chocolate without sacrificing flavor, according to research presented at the American Chemical Society’s 2020 conference.
The new, higher antioxidant form of milk chocolate can be made by recycling food scraps that would otherwise go to waste, such as coffee grounds, discarded tea leaves, and peanut skins.
These agricultural waste products are a ‘goldmine’ of antioxidants, which can help reduce inflammation and may protect against certain chronic diseases, according to researchers from North Carolina State University.
‘The idea for this project began with testing different types of agricultural waste for bioactivity, particularly peanut skins,’ Lisa Oehrl Dean, a food science professor at North Carolina State and principal investigator on this research, said in a press release.
Peanut skins, which are usually thrown away after the peanuts are shelled to make peanut butter and other products, contain 15% phenolic compounds (plant substances rich in antioxidants) by weight, Dean’s team found.
By grinding them into a powder and adding them to milk chocolate, researchers were able to not only make the chocolate more nutritious, but also disguise the bitter flavor of the antioxidant compounds.”
New and improved milk chocolate isn’t the only snack food that will soon be making us healthier. In addition, we may be able to use cashews to counteract the effects of nerve damage.
According to Slash Gear:
“Myelin, the protective sheath that covers nerves, is damaged by certain diseases like multiple sclerosis, leading to chronic pain and, over time, severe dysfunction. Preventing or, in cases where the disease has already progressed, reversing the demyelination is necessary to treat the conditions, something that isn’t yet possible in any substantial way. A compound found in cashew shells may offer a solution.
Previous research by the study’s senior author Subramaniam Sriram found that a protein called IL-33 can be used to induce the formation of the myelin sheath around nerves in addition to regulating the immune system. The latest study from the researcher found that anacardic acid, a compound found in cashew shells, can potentially be used to help treat diseases that involve demyelination.
Attention was turned to this compound because it inhibits acetyltransferase, an enzyme that influences gene expression — of note, inhibiting this enzyme triggers IL-33 production, the protein that regulates the immune system and triggers myelin formation. Multiple sclerosis, a demyelination disease, is an autoimmune condition that results from the immune system attacking the body’s own nerves.
Research involving lab animals found, among other things, that treating animals suffering from demyelination with this cashew shell compound reduced the severity of their paralysis. The researchers note that animals treated with anacardic acid showed myelination increases that were dose-dependent, as well.
Though this doesn’t mean the average person can use cashew shells to heal nerves damaged by demyelination, it does pave the way for additional research that may lead to new, more effective treatment options.’
On a lighter note we may also be getting girl scout cookies that taste like French toast.
As Fast Company puts it:
“This announcement about the latest addition to a beloved lineup that includes Thin Mints, Do-si-dos/Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Trefoils/Shortbread, Samoas/Caramel deLites, and Tagalongs/Peanut Butter Patties comes at exactly the right time.
The research firm NPD found that sweet and savory snack food consumption has jumped 8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the 1% it increased during the Great Recession.
‘We have certain things we really love and make us feel good,’ says Jim Painter, a psychology-of-food expert and professor emeritus at Eastern Illinois University. ‘With so many things going wrong, people want to go back to something that’s familiar, that’s comforting. Girl Scout cookies fit that amazingly. Everyone has this nostalgic idea about Girl Scout cookies. It fulfills that comfort, the good old times, the way things used to be.’”
And comfort food is certainly something that we can all use right about now.
Is milk chocolate with the health benefits of dark chocolate the Greatest Idea Ever?
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