{"id":17187,"date":"2021-01-19T09:52:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T09:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/?p=17187"},"modified":"2022-12-31T11:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T11:00:32","slug":"the-discovery-of-cacao-as-healthy-superfood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bartalks.net\/the-discovery-of-cacao-as-healthy-superfood\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DISCOVERY OF CACAO AS HEALTHY SUPERFOOD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1944, Benjamin H. Kean was a 32-year-old army surgeon stationed in the Panama Canal Zone by the US army. Later he would play a disputed role in the Iran hostage crisis\u00a0as physician to the exiled Shah<\/a>. But in WWII he was an unknown doctor who, one quiet day decided to visit the islands of the San Blas\u00a0archipelago, roughly 25 kilometres from the Panama coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There he met a group of Kuna Indians, who had lived in a very isolated situation for the past 500 years. He discovered that these Kuna Indians didn’t develop high blood pressure, even as they aged. He also learned that\u00a0every member of this Indian tribe drank at least three to four cups of cacao per day, but he didn’t make the link.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Benjamin<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

50 years old medical journal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Kean published his observations in a medical journal, but no one took notice. Until 50 years later in the early 1990s, Harvard professor Dr. Norman Hollenberg found the article and decided to continue the research on the Kuna indians. His discoveries would mark the definitive breakthrough of cocoa as one of the healthiest food sources in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kuna<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Chris Kilham of Medicine Hunter<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical Detective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Norman Hollenberg (1935-2020)<\/a>\u00a0was at first looking for a genetic answer to high blood pressure. Through the\u00a0article\u00a0of Dr. Kean he had learned that the Kuna Indians of the San Blas islands almost never\u00a0suffered a heart attack. He hoped that the moderate blood pressure of the isolated Kuna tribe would be the result of ‘good genes’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every three months he visited the tribe for a week. To his surprise he learned that tribal members who moved to the mainland of Panama started to experience high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases and even cancer; all health problems\u00a0the islanders were somehow protected from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ruled out his initial theory of the existence of a protective gene, and he felt there had to be another cause. Being the medical detective that he was, he couldn’t stop his research before he had found the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cacao as wonder drug?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The health differences between the mainland Kuna and their family islanders were shocking. The relative risk of death from heart disease on the Panama mainland was 1,280 percent higher than on the islands and death from cancer was 630 percent higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollenberg eliminated in his research other plausible causes as environment and stress and concentrated on the big difference in diet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to Kuna Indians living in a suburb of Panama City, those still living on the remote islands were consuming twice as much fruit, four times as much fish, and 10 times as much cacao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n