- Epicatechin is biochemical found in teas, wine, chocolate
and some fruit and vegetables.
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- Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School, believes that epicatechin is so important that it should be
considered a vitamin.
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- Hollenberg has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa
drinking on the Kuna people in Panama. He found that the risk of 4 of the
5 most common killer diseases: stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes,
is reduced to less then 10% in the Kuna. They can drink up to 40 cups of
cocoa a week.
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- Natural cocoa has high levels of epicatechin.
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- 'If these observations predict the future, then we can
say without blushing that they are among the most important observations
in the history of medicine,' Hollenberg says. 'We all agree that penicillin
and anaesthesia are enormously important. But epicatechin could potentially
get rid of 4 of the 5 most common diseases in the western world, how important
does that make epicatechin?... I would say very important'
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- Nutrition expert Daniel Fabricant says that Hollenberg's
results, although observational, are so impressive that they may even warrant
a rethink of how vitamins are defined. Epicatechin does not currently meet
the criteria. Vitamins are defined as essential to the normal functioning,
metabolism, regulation and growth of cells and deficiency is usually linked
to disease.
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- At the moment, the science does not support epicatechin
having an essential role. But, Fabricant, who is vice president scientific
affairs at the Natural Products Association, says: 'the link between high
epicatechin consumption and a decreased risk of killer disease is so striking,
it should be investigated further. It may be that these diseases are the
result of epicatechin deficiency,' he says.
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- Currently, there are only 13 essential vitamins. An increase
in the number of vitamins would provide significant opportunity for nutritional
companies to expand their range of products. Flavanols like epicatechin
are removed for commercial cocoas because they tend to have a bitter taste.
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- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070311202024.htm
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