It seems impossible. A group of people who sail through life without ever developing “age-related” diseases.
They even seem immune to the “big three” – hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
These outliers are called the Kuna. They live on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. And they seem to have some kind of superpower against disease.
Their death rate from diabetes is 74.3% lower than in the U.S. Their death rate from cardiovascular disease is 95.4% lower. And when it comes to hypertension … something that affects 45% of adults in the U.S. … for the Kuna, it barely exists.
Of course it’s genetics … or is it?
At first, researchers thought the Kuna must have some kind of genetic advantage. But studies done at Harvard Medical School found that’s not the case.
The studies compared island-based Kuna with those who had moved to the mainland. And the findings were shocking.
When Kuna live on the mainland for as little as 5 years, their risk of dying from diabetes more than triples. Death from heart disease increases more than 10 times. And their blood pressure rises to match people in other developed countries!
If the Kuna had a genetic advantage, there wouldn’t be major changes like this when they moved off the islands. So it had to be something else. But what?
Researchers wanted to know. So they started to study the Kuna intently.
They analyzed everything the Kuna did … everything they ate … and everything they drank. And they compared their daily habits to the Kuna who moved to the mainland. And that’s when they discovered one main difference.
From the day island Kuna stop nursing until the day they die, they drink cocoa. Yes, cocoa!
The Kuna drink about 5 cups of cocoa a day. But the ones who move to the mainland don’t drink much … if any at all.
The link with disease
As you may know, cocoa is loaded with special polyphenols. Polyphenols are compounds found in certain plants. And researchers now believe the island-dwelling Kuna get more of them from their diet than any other place on earth.
What’s so special about polyphenols? For one, they are powerful antioxidants. They also help your body fight inflammation. Both of these make polyphenols a powerful disease-fighting force.
But perhaps the most important thing about polyphenols … especially the ones found in cocoa … is that they dilate the arteries. And that improves circulation.
As you may know, good circulation reduces a whole host of diseases. Including cardiovascular disease. So the Kuna findings sparked a lot of research involving cocoa.
In one study, a group of researchers wanted to see if the polyphenols in cocoa could help people suffering with peripheral artery disease (or PAD) – a condition where the arteries in your legs get narrower. This restricts blood flow and makes walking difficult and painful.
At the start of the study, the researchers measured how far the participants could walk in 6 minutes. Then the participants were randomly assigned to drink either cocoa or a placebo 3 times a day.
Six months later, the researchers tested them again.
The participants who drank the cocoa walked 139.8 feet farther. That’s almost half a football field!
But even more shocking was what happened to the non-cocoa drinkers. Because when the researchers tested them, they saw that their condition had become much worse. They walked 79.4 feet less than at the start of the study.
So drinking cocoa dilates the arteries enough to make a big difference in blood circulation. But what if people don’t want to drink cocoa? Well researchers wondered the same thing. So they checked to see if people would get similar results if they ate chocolate instead.
It depends on what kind
It turns out that eating chocolate does help, but it depends on the kind you eat.
Not only that, researchers found something even more interesting about eating chocolate.
It turns out that it doesn’t take 6 months to see improvement. You can see a difference in just 2 hours!
In a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, PAD sufferers were given 1.5 ounces of either milk chocolate or dark chocolate.
Before they were given the chocolate, researchers measured how far and for how long the participants could walk. Then the researchers measured them again 2 hours after they ate the chocolate. After just 2 hours, the people who ate dark chocolate could walk almost 10% farther and almost 14% longer. (There was no difference with the milk chocolate eaters.)
The reason why is that dark chocolate has much more polyphenols than milk chocolate does. And as mentioned earlier, dark chocolate dilates the arteries and improves blood flow.
This is certainly some good news for people with PAD, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. The key to getting results is picking dark chocolate with the right amount of cocoa. The amount used in these studies was 85% or more, so that’s what you should look for.
I also suggest you check the amount of sugar before you buy it. Some chocolate manufacturers add a lot of extra sugar to dark chocolate. Try to find one with 5% or less. Or, if you prefer, you can drink cocoa like the Kuna do.