CORNELL NEWS

Ahhhh! Better than red wine or green tea, cocoa froths with cancer-preventing
compounds, Cornell food scientists say

ITHACA, N.Y. -- There is a new reason to enjoy hot cocoa on a cold winter's
night in front of a cozy fire. Consider it a health drink.

Beyond the froth, cocoa teems with antioxidants that prevent cancer, Cornell
University food scientists say. Comparing the chemical anti-cancer activity in
beverages known to contain antioxidants, they have found that cocoa has nearly
twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times those found in green
tea.

Their finding will be published Dec. 3 in the American Chemical Society's
Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry , a peer-reviewed publication.

Scientists have long known that cocoa contains antioxidants, but no one knew
just how plentiful they were compared with those in red wine and green tea.

The Cornell researchers, led by Chang Y. (Cy) Lee, chairman of the Department
of Food Science and Technology at the university's New York State Agricultural
Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., say the reason that cocoa leads the other
drinks is its high content of compounds called phenolic phytochemicals, or
flavonoids, indicating the presence of known antioxidants that can stave off
cancer, heart disease and other ailments. They discovered 611 milligrams of the
phenolic compound gallic acid equivalents (GAE) and 564 milligrams of the
flavonoid epicatechin equivalents (ECE) in a single serving of cocoa. Examining
a glass of red wine, the researchers found 340 milligrams of GAE and 163
milligrams of ECE. In a cup of green tea, they found 165 milligrams of GAE and
47 milligrams of ECE.

"If I had made a prediction before conducting the tests, I would have picked
green tea as having the most antioxidant activity," said Lee. "When we compared
one serving of each beverage, the cocoa turned out to be the highest in
antioxidant activity, and that was surprising to me."Phenolic compounds protect
plants against insects and pathogens, and they remain active even after food
processing. A decade ago "food scientists did not know that phenolics had an
important role in human health," says Lee.

Lee and his colleagues used two chemical tests that measured how well the cocoa
compounds scavenge for free radicals -- agents that cause cancer, heart disease
and other diseases.

In the paper, the researchers discuss eating chocolate bars instead of drinking
cocoa. "Although a bar of chocolate exhibits strong antioxidant activity, the
health benefits are still controversial because of the saturated fats present,"
the researchers write. They explain that cocoa has about one-third of a gram of
fat per one-cup serving, compared with eight grams of fat in a standard-size
40-gram chocolate bar.

Faced with the confusing prospect of drinking red wine or green tea or cocoa,
Lee suggests enjoying all three in different parts of the day. "Personally, I
would drink hot cocoa in the morning, green tea in the afternoon and a glass of
red wine in the evening. That's a good combination," he says.

The research paper is titled "Cocoa Has More Phenolic Phytochemicals and a
Higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine." Lee's collaborators are
his former graduate student, Ki Won Lee; Hyong Joo Lee, a professor at Seoul
National University, South Korea; and Young Jun Kim, a post-doctoral researcher
at Cornell. The research was funded in part by the BioGreen 21 Program, Rural
Development Administration, Republic of South Korea.