Lloyd, it sounds pretty rustic, to say the least. Were you there to explore a new culture?

More details: (Epicatechin is also in green tea.)

Cocoa ingredient 'rivals penicillin'



The health benefits of one ingredient of cocoa are so striking that it "may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health". Roger Highfield reports

The ingredient - epicatechin - can reduce the risk from diseases such as stroke and heart failure, Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told the journal Chemistry & Industry.

Prof Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. They drink up to 40 cups of cocoa a week. Among the Kuna, he found that the risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes was reduced to less than 10 per cent.


"Epicatechin could potentially get rid of four of the five most common diseases in the western world," Prof Hollenberg told the journal.

The cocoa that the Kuna drink is homemade and very rich in chemicals called -flavanols, notably epicatechin, which is known to have cardio-vascular benefits.

Flavanols are removed from commercial cocoas because they tend to have a bitter taste.

**************

Epicatechin

Cranberry juice is a time-honored remedy for treating urinary tract infections. Early theories assumed that the juice’s effectiveness was due to its high acid content. Recent clinical studies, however, indicate that trimers (three-molecule aggregates) of epicatechin in the juice act to inhibit the adhesion of bacteria to the cells that line the urinary tract.

**********

"Pure epicatechin consumed by humans had much the same effect as did consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa."

http://www.chocolate.org/health/epicatechin.html


More info on Mars new chocolate:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060225/food.asp