Chocolate may save your life!
Here’s something that surprised me: Eating chocolate may help prevent colon cancer! That’s according to research from Spain’s Institute of Food Science and Technology. They found that rats with cancer that ate a cocoa-rich diet for 8 weeks had fewer lesions and tumors, compared to rats on a cocoa-free diet. The researchers believe it’s because the polyphenols in cocoa reduce the oxidative damage caused by free radicals. They also cut the communication between cancerous cells that encourage them to grow, and – instead – encourage cancer cells to DIE. And since the cancer-fighting substances in cocoa aren’t absorbed well in the small intestine, they end up in the large intestine – AKA the colon – with their full powers still intact. But as it is with almost all good news on chocolate – it’s dark chocolate that does the trick for colon cancer, which has 70% cacao content.