Bittersweet remedies

Research is finding a silver lining to the two dark sins of coffee and chocolate, to the joy of addicts and connoisseurs.

The south Indian saint Baba Budan is famous "" but you may not have heard of him. Following his return to India from a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1670, his name found its way to a mountain range in Karnataka.

As his fame gradually unfurled, Baba Budan's name, and the secret behind it, reached America, where, in the city of Cincinnati, the now-famous Baba Budan's Espresso Bar began serving patrons in 1921.

Legend has it that after Kaldi, the legendary Ethiopian goatherd, discovered how to release the flavour of the cherry-red berries that contained the coffee bean, the beans began to be brewed in Arabia. The derived drink came to be known as "bean broth".

Such was the effect of the bean broth that Arabia banned the export of these beans. When Baba Budan visited Mecca, he smuggled out fertile coffee beans by strapping them to his belly. Thus began the rapid rise of the coffee bean, which gave us coffee "" the bean broth that is now considered almost sinful.

Health books of earlier times warned against coffee as well as chocolate, saying both were hazardous because of their addictive qualities. Now, however, researchers across the world are accepting their health benefits. As for the ill effects, "anything taken in excess is unhealthy".

Nutritionist Ishi Khosla observes that ongoing research has refuted a lot of fears associated with coffee and chocolate.

"Both of these products," she says, "are foods derived from plants and have phytochemicals. Thus, they are antioxidants and, in fact, have disease-fighting properties." They may not be superfoods, but these dark sins may just do you some good, if taken in moderation.

The strange yet attractive aura that surrounds coffee beans led to 2007 becoming the year of major scientific research on the health benefits of coffee. Italian researchers, for instance, found that one or two cups of coffee a day could reduce the risk of blespharospasm "" a condition in which the sufferers have uncontrollable twitching of the eyelid that can also lead to blindness.

Another revelation was coffee's ability to delay the age of onset of such spasms by almost 1.7 years per additional cup. Another, smaller study discovered that having a cuppa or two after your workout could reduce post-workout muscle pain by up to 48 per cent.

For women over 65, raising your coffee intake to two or three cups a day could help you remember all those long-lost days, found French researchers in a study published this year in Neurology. The study even spoke of the possibility that caffeine might protect against dementia.

Dr Ashutosh Shukla, head of the department of internal medicine at the Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon, confirms that three to five cups of coffee a day are not addictive. "Coffee is very effective in increasing alertness, especially if you are suffering from common cold," he says.

Taking one step away from the infamous active ingredient "" caffeine "" a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada discovered that four or more cups of coffee a day could cut the risk of a painful attack of gout.

This, though, is not an effect of caffeine, they claimed, since the same result was not seen in tea-drinkers. The study's results back the findings of an earlier Japanese study. Adds Shukla, "Coffee increases urine formation, thus helping in alleviating gout."

Coffee's ally in crime "" chocolate "" has also long been criticised. But, in what could be a pathbreaking discovery for the medical world, Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discovered that the benefits of epicatechin, a compound found in cocoa, are so profound that they could overshadow penicillin and anaesthesia.

Hollenberg is so confident of his findings that in an interview he said that the effect of epicatechin is so important that it should be considered a vitamin.

Hollenberg studied the benefits of cocoa-drinking on the Kuna people in Panama (who drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week). He found that the risk of four of the five most common fatal conditions i.e. stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes is reduced to less than 10 per cent among the Kuna.

Besides chocolate, of course, epicatechin is also found in teas, wine and some fruits and vegetables. Cocoa solids also provide essential nutrients like iron, calcium and potassium.

Chocolate connoisseur Sanjiv Obhrai finds the effects of dark chocolate extremely beneficial. "Cocoa fat, found in abundance in dark chocolates, nourishes arteries and is thus very good for the heart," he says.

A study published in the Journal of American Medicine went a step ahead to reveal that a mouthful of dark chocolate a day (30 calories' worth) could reduce blood pressure, thus cutting the risk of stroke.

This has been attributed to the chemical plant substances known as flavanols which it contains. In fact, magnesium, present in abundance in cocoa, is known to be beneficial for the cardiovascular system.

Delightfully for chocolate lovers, chocolate is known to be one of the best and most accessible energy boosters, even for diabetics. In fact, chocolate is a must in every armyman's survival kit. For women suffering through their monthly cycle, it's a known mood elevator.

"However," says Shukla, "plain, dark chocolate with at least 70 per cent cocoa solids is the best source of nutrients among all other forms of chocolate."

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Moderation is key

Plain chocolate (not dark) has very high sugar content and also contains harmful vegetable fat

White chocolate is cocoa butter, sugar, flavour and milk and contains no cocoa solids. It provides no special health benefits

Some studies have shown that six or more cups of coffee a day increase the risk of heart disease

Caffeine is addictive and quitting can create withdrawal symptoms

People with peptic ulcers should avoid coffee as it may cause irritation

Don't have tea or coffee with meals, as they interfere with mineral absorption

Coffee increases calcium loss through kidneys and intestines, so coffee addicts should take calcium supplements