Chocolate may help PE gains??

I decided to quickly look through a brochure titled Prevention Healing with Chocolate, and to my PE delight I read chocolate with high levels of flavanols can

“Increase blood vessel flexibility. Unlike asprin, some of the procyanidins in Cocoapro (cocoa with high flavanols) trigger the production of nitric oxide, which helps keep arteries flexible and increases blood flow.”

This pamphlet recommended that you take “about an ounce of chocolate a day” in order to increase good cholesterol and prevent the bad from oxidizing. Finally the chocolates with the highest levels of flavanols are El Rey Gran Saman dark chocolate 70% cocoa, Scharffen Berger Bittersweet 70% cocoa, lake champlain dark chocolate 54% cocoa (order was not specified that is how they had it down).

Watch those calories or all of your PE gains will be swallowed up in your fat pad. :)

Can you post a link that backs this up, because I am 5’8” and weigh 142 and have hardly no fat pad. I love chocolate.

Same here except I’m 6’1” and weigh 150. I should own stock in Hershey. :)

I should stock up on Hershey.

Well this is not the article I quoted from but it is made from the same people on the same topic.

It does not talk about increasing flexibility in this article but “Flavonols seem to ease inflammation, opening blood vessels and improving blood flow.”

The chocolate could be a bad idea do to the extra cals from it. However, nitric oxide sounds quiet interesting and I’ll have to see if I can find more info about that.

I’ve eaten so much chocolate that I shouldn’t have a heart attack for at least 200 years!

By the way, has anybody here tasted 70% chocolate? That’s pretty bitter!

I love dark chocolate it is good for you but it will make you fat if you eat to much

I take a fish oil pill thingy each day which produces a similar effect. But chocolate is tastey :) .

Hey ShaggyDogy , the 70% chocolate is the only type of chocolate that will give you health benefits . If you’ve been eating plenty of regular chocolate it may end up giving you a heart attack ? Better switch to the bitter stuff . I can’t eat regular chocolate anymore , it tastes sickly sweet now .:cool:

Yeah I know, that’s what’s so damned good about it! Damn it you made me hungry. Happy now?

I’m just warning people that yes you can switch for health benefits, but it’s gonna taste worse! lot’s worse!

Now if they made healthy food that tasted and went down like a Dairy Milk bar, I’d be in heaven!

I think it’s the L-Arginine content in chocolate that gives the NO effect.

I looked searched around some more and found this http://www.virt ualcancercentre … .asp?artid=1851 .
To sum it up:
-measured how well blood vessels are able to relax if blood flow increases
-ate 46 grams (1.6 ounces) of dark, flavonoid-rich chocolate every day for two weeks
-group eating flavonoid-rich chocolate, blood vessel dilation increased by a tenth

Nutrient Content of Semisweet Chocolate (Dark Chocolate) http://www.coco apro.com/cnhy/c … facts/cf504.jsp
Nutrient Value
44g
Energy (kcal) 210
Carbohydrate (g) 28
—Fiber (g) 2.62
Protein (g) 1.8
Fat (g) 13.2

210 cals with only 69.3 cals (7.7x9) coming from saturated isn’t bad at all for a possible increase of that amount. You probably burn that much doing all that PE work anyways!

Well it also turns out garlic does the same thing:

“Garlic has also been found to be helpful to those dealing with impotence. Folklore dating back centuries has hailed garlic as an aphrodisiac, and now studies have proven this legend to be true. We know that garlic aids in blood circulation and keeps veins and arteries youthful, but that is only one way it helps with impotence. According to researchers, to obtain an erection an enzyme is required called nitric oxide synthase, and compounds in garlic stimulate the production of this enzyme in people who suffer from low levels of it.”

Well I don’t know how much L-Arginine is in chocolate but I am very interested in finding more out about the amounts needed of this amino acid in order to help.

As seen in this article “Arginine Maintains Not Only Healthy Arteries, but Veins Too
This Amino Acid Powerhouse Is the Primary Source of Nitric Oxide “

“infusing a compound that stimulates nitric oxide production into the patients’ bloodstream, and they found that this increased their venous volume. The response was dose-dependent; that is, the increase in venous volume was proportional to the amount of compound administered.”

“Nitric oxide is produced primarily from a simple amino acid, arginine, through a direct chemical reaction.”

“Arginine can be found in many foods, including chocolate, wheat germ, wheat flour, buckwheat, granola, oatmeal, dairy products, beef, pork, nuts, seeds, poultry, seafood, chickpeas, and soybeans. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain high enough levels of arginine from food alone. To obtain the full range of arginine’s benefits, supplementation is necessary.”

The thing I don’t like about that article is how they then throw in a plug for a product (I’m assuming theirs). I want to see how much Arginine is needed, and as they stated infusing a compound that stimulates nitric oxide production was dose-dependent. Well I now want to know what they infused how much and at what levels did the increase of dosage no longer help.