Alla inlägg den 5 december 2013

Av Shelley-Ann Thörnqvist - 5 december 2013 17:08

Ever heard the expression “As useful as a milk chocolate teapot”? Så nyttigt som en mjölkchokladtekanna :)

The joke is that nobody would want to use milk chocolate to make a teapot, because it would melt as soon as you put any tea in it. However, it turns out that over years people have used chocolate for many more things than just eating.
For instance:
 
 
Photo by SuperFantastic on Flickr

Keeping Your Teeth Healthy

Kakao håller tänderna lika friska som fluor!


At first glance this might seem like an idea up there with chocolate teapots. After all, nobody’s dentist ever told them to eat more sweets. But it’s true! According to researcher Arman Sadeghpour at Tulane University an extract of cocoa powder found in chocolate could be an effective alternative to using fluoride in toothpaste. In fact, if Sadeghpour’s research is correct, the cocoa extract works even better than fluoride when it comes to fighting cavities.
 
 
Photo by nicubunu.photo on Flickr

As Legal Tender

Som officiellt betalningsmedel/valuta


Even more popular than “As useful as a chocolate teapot” is the expression “Money doesn’t grow on trees!” Except that once upon a time it did. The ancient civilisation believed to have first discovered chocolate, The Mayans, actually used cocoa beans as money. It was a habit the Astecs picked up as well, even paying their taxes in cacao.
 
 
Photo by futureatlas.com on Flickr

As Fuel

Som bränsle


The chocolate powered car sounds like a dream, or a nightmare if you don’t like the idea of having to share chocolate with your car. Scientists have used surplus chocolate (we weren’t aware there was such a thing) to feed Escherichia coli bacteria, who in turn produce hydrogen, which can be used as a clean power source.
 
 
Photo by storem on Flickr

As A Weapon

Som vapen


As we covered recently, during World War II it was believed the Nazis were going to try and assassinate Winston Churchill using a bomb disguised as a bar of milk chocolate. The artist Lawrence Fish was called upon by the secret service to illustrate that new, delicious looking threat. The idea was that when you broke off chocolate from the end of the bar it would reveal “a piece of canvas is revealed stuck into the middle of the piece” which, when pulled on, would activate the bomb.

Fortunately such devices are no longer in use, so you can eat your chocolate in safety.
 
 
Photo by Alex E. Proimos on Flickr

As Medicine

Som medicin
Over the years people have claimed all sorts of health benefits from eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate. These include everything from aiding the circulatory system to stimulating the brain and preventing coughs. Some have even claimed that chocolate has aphrodisiac tendencies. Those aphrodisiac tendencies have yet to actually be proven by science, but we’ve yet to discover a situation where it’s a bad idea to give your date chocolates...
 
Hoppas ni tyckte det var roligt att läsa!!

Av Shelley-Ann Thörnqvist - 5 december 2013 16:48

jag älskar artiklar där det står att choklad är bra för fölkhälsan :)

Hittade den här på engelska som heter 11 Reasons Chocolate is good for you :)


11 Reasons Chocolate Is Good for Your Health

Jake Heller

Tack Jake för en bra artikel :)
March 28th 20126:07 PM
It turns out that chocolate—especially dark chocolate—reduces body mass, prevents blood clots, improves numeracy, may prevent cancer, and doesn’t ruin your complexion.

A new study suggests that eating chocolate can help you stay thin. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego found that people who frequently eat chocolate have lower body-mass indexes than people who don’t. Other evidence indicates that chocolate can also ward off strokes, heart attacks, and diabetes. So here are 11 reasons to indulge in some s’mores this summer (no word yet on the health benefits of marshmallows) …

1. Chocolate decreases stroke risk

Choklad sänker risk för stroke

A Swedish study found that eating more than 45 grams of chocolate per week—about two bars worth—led to a 20 percent decrease in stroke risk among women. Chocolate contains flavonoids, whose antioxidant properties help fight strokes, the study’s author, Susanna Larsson, told HealthDay.

2. Chocolate reduces the likelihood of a heart attack

Choklad sänker dina chanser att få hjärtinfarkt

Other studies show that eating chocolate prevents blood clots, which in turn reduces the risk of heart attacks. Blood platelets clump together more slowly in chocolate eaters, the studies say.

3. Chocolate protects against blood inflammation

Choklad skyddar mot blodinflammation (vad det än må vara det måste ju vara bra!)

Eat one Hershey’s dark chocolate bar per week, and your risk of heart disease will decrease, a 2008 study found. About 6.7 grams of dark chocolate per day keeps the blood inflammation-inducing proteins away. Just like your mother always told you.

4. Chocolate helps with math

Se upp alla mattelärare låt eleverna få äta choklad på lektionerna!

Choklad hjälper med matte/att räkna

British psychologists found that flavanols (a class of flavonoids, which are found in chocolate) helped people with their mental math. Study subjects had an easier time counting backwards from a randomly-generated number between 800 and 999 after drinking a cup of hot chocolate than they did without the cocoa. “The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so,” the British Telegraph reported.

5. Chocolate may prevent cancer

Choklad kan förebygga cancer :)

Cocoa contains a compound called pentameric procyanidin, or pentamer, which disrupts cancer cells’ ability to spread. When researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University treated cancer cells with pentamer back in 2005, the proteins necessary for cancer growth were suppressed and the cells stopped dividing.

6. Chocolate reduces the risk of diabetes

Choklad sänker risken för diabetes

The Italians know a thing or two about good eating.And a small study from the University of L'Aquila, in Italy, found that eating chocolate increases insulin sensitivity, which reduces the risk of diabetes.

7. Chocolate is good for your skin

Choklad är bra för huden - det visste jag eftersom jag gör ansiktsmasker som är goda och nyttiga :)

“Some people say that I eat too many chocolate bars …” Remember that acne infomercial from the 90s? No? Well, it doesn’t matter. Not only does it not cause breakouts, it’s actually good for your skin! (Well, dark chocolate at least.) Flavonoids found in dark chocolate protect women’s skin from the sun’s UV rays, according toGerman scientists. But that doesn’t mean you can skip the sunscreen.

8. Chocolate can control coughs

Choklad kan kontrollera hostande 

 

The most delicious way to kick your cough, apparently, is chocolate. One of the sweet’s chemical components, theobromine, seems to reduce the activity of the vagus nerve, the part of the brain that triggers coughing fits. Scientists are even working on a cough-quelling drug that uses theobromine in place of codeine—a narcotic common in cough medicine.

9. Chocolate improves blood flow

Choklad förbättrar blodcirkulationen :)

In 2008 Harvard scientists forced test subjects to undergo “two weeks of enhanced chocolate intake.” A fortnight of chocolate face-stuffing, they found, sped up blood flow through their subject’s middle cerebral arteries. In other words, more chocolate means more blood to your brain.

10. Chocolate strengthens your brain

Choklad gör hjärnan starkare

Researchers at  the Johns Hopkins University found that dark chocolate shields cells in your brain, and accordingly protects it from damage caused by stroke. Epicatechin, a compound found in chocolate, significantly reduced the brain damage in mice who suffered strokes, they found. Scientists at California's Salk Institute also found thatepicatechin improved mice’s memories.

11. Chocolate makes you live longer

Choklad ökar livslängden - åh va bra visste det!!

Jeanne Louise Calment lived to the age of 122—the oldest anyone has ever lived. She ate two and a half pounds of dark chocolate per week. Harvard researchers found that eating chocolate actually adds two years to your life expectancy.

But don’t just start binging on chocolate! Most of the chocolate you buy in the grocery store is heavily processed, which means that it has lost many of its healthy chemicals. And some of the research supporting chocolate’s healthy characteristics was paid for by chocolate manufacturers.

Next: Did you know that having sex at least twice a week reduces your risk of a heart attack, speeds up your metabolism, and boosts your immune system?


fantastiskt bra artikel tycker jag och rolig också :)

Presentation

Fråga mig

9 besvarade frågor

Kalender

Ti On To Fr
           
1
2
3
4
5 6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16 17 18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
<<< December 2013 >>>

Sök i bloggen

Senaste inläggen

Kategorier

Arkiv

RSS

Besöksstatistik

Gästbok


Ovido - Quiz & Flashcards