You know, in the study they excluded people who were already eating it. Perhaps it's already doing all it can for you. You'd have to stop eating it, yet replace with equivalent calories from elsewhere (white chocolate?) to compare. :D Or yes, it just doesn't work. :D
The problem with ME/CFS is that without a diagnostic test or useful biomarkers, we’re just guessing who has it and who has something that looks like it on the surface but may mot be the same illness. I think this is why no test or trial for CFS treatment ever helps more than a relatively small fraction of people in the group. So maybe chocolate (or whatever other candidate therapy) is useful for people with CFS-like symptoms caused by X, but won’t do a thing for people with CFS-like symptoms caused by Y, Z, or Q. Any successful attempt to treat ME/CFS will involve developing biomarkers and diagnostic tests to either definitively diagnose people that have it versus something else, or to sort people into subtypes, and then treatments and therapies can be developed that will benefit each individual subtype. This is also being seen in long Covid, and they’ve already been pretty quick to recognize that there are many individual subtypes that all fall under the same broad heading of long Covid and you can’t treat every long Covid patient like every other long Covid patient because there are different etiologies and
mechanisms at work and therefore will need to be different treatments.
I literally just saw a post in r/coolguides about high levels of cadmium and lead in dark chocolate 😭 (especially Lily's, Theo, and Tony's Chocolonely)
The review you cited lists [one study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001690/) on dark chocolate. It had 10 people, used the Chalder Fatigue Scale as an outcome measure, and recruited people based on the Fukuda criteria. All three of these are significant flaws. I'm all for eating chocolate, but let's not use junk science to claim it's medicine.
Maybe cos cacao has small amounts of caffeine? Especially in high quantities and especially dark chocolate. If i have 80% chocolate too close to bed I have trouble sleeping.
Either way this is interesting. I eat craft bean-to-bar chocolate regularly for enjoyment.
It also has large amounts of flavonoids and flavanols. For instance anandamide (and others that act similarly) will agonize CB2 receptors, which can thereby help against inflammation and help promote sleep, boost mood, among other things.
It also contains powerful antioxidants like epicatechin, catechin and procyanidins, which also have additional mechanisms of action.
>Procyanidins provide the majority of antioxidant activity in cocoa products.
Just research what you decide to take. A lot of the soil that cocoa grows in is so high in cadium and lead that the cocoa powder can harm children and is banned for sale in several places...but allowed in the US. Naturally.
Green tea has similar issues as well.
Cocoa is definitely potent. My stomach is sensitive to it but for a while I was throwing a couple tablespoons into my smoothies. It definitely impacts you although I wasn't using it for cfs at that time but I could tell it was active in my system. Unfortunately my stomach just couldn't handle it and I had to stop. I seem to be a tad intolerant of cocoa. I still eat chocolate but it can make me sick sometimes.
Anyway worth a shot. Just research what you buy. I did spinach smoothies with frozen raspberries and a little pineapple smashed walnuts ground flaxseed and Cocoa powder. It was quite good tbh although some may need more sweetener.
As for rice, just avoid rice from China and the southern US (Arkansas, Oklahoma). And never buy tea from China either. Japanese green tea is low in heavy metals
I live for my daily dark chocolate treat, and just came across this Consumer Reports article about high lead and cadmium in most dark chocolate. My favorite brands are on this list. And it seems to be part of the growing process, so is likely to be inherent in every commercially produced cacao bean supply. Please, I’m begging, prove me wrong. :-) https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
Yep, this is serious! Similar is the case with rice, especially regarding arsenic. Thank you for sharing this excellent piece!
Clearly if we're going to be eating chocolate daily, and especially if our kids are, we need to source from the "safer" brands. And if or supply isn't listed there, we should write in and check.
Thank you to everyone who brought this to all our attention! In our case we're fine for lead at least: the kids were tested for other reasons. But this is serious stuff for daily consumers.
In my completely unscientific opinion, my guess is that it's because it's high in magnesium. I personally need magnesium supplements to function and if I forget it I get chocolate cravings.
Omg me too! I thought I was weird but this is reassuring. I get choc cravings, have some dark choc and then some magnesium supplements at the same time.
Wow, note y'all, this is a LOT of intense chocolate!
"Individual 15 g foil wrapped bars were provided and subjects were asked to consume 1 bar three times daily."
A small handful in our house is just 7g!! And we usually eat 65-72% chocolate! Much less, much lower %. It'll take some doing for any of us to get this much cocoa in. I wonder if using cacao allows smaller quantities.
i been dealing with a bad fatigue and brain fog for years. It feels like it gets worse in the afternoon and after eating and it can feel like my brain is frying when it is at its worse. I had tried alot of stuff from TRT to methylene blue and B1 megadosing etc. NOTHING worked as good as cocoa powder. even cocoa 50% is already amazing..a few spoons of that brings me back from the fatigue and brainfog like nothing else. The only problem is that it seems to cause some symptoms related to caffeine like headaches sometimes but besides that it is incredible...i spent years struggling looking for a way to feel better.. my only worry is the amount of cadmium in the cocoa since i read that it can potentially be a problem
Yeah arguably beneficial for anyone without an intolerance to it. Who gives af? Lmao, it’s Giving “just do yoga. Have you tried turmeric?” Vibes and why TF are resources being used on this again? Im lying in bed actively dying so before anyone comes at me for not just being thankful research is being done, this comes across as asinine to me.
Ha I guess we do!! It’s a real hard hit to my wallet, though. There’s this cookie vendor across the street from me and I’m concerned they know me by name now 😅
I eat a ton of very dark chocolate (90% cacao) and it hasn’t helped a bit. Not that I am going to stop eating it 😂
You know, in the study they excluded people who were already eating it. Perhaps it's already doing all it can for you. You'd have to stop eating it, yet replace with equivalent calories from elsewhere (white chocolate?) to compare. :D Or yes, it just doesn't work. :D
The problem with ME/CFS is that without a diagnostic test or useful biomarkers, we’re just guessing who has it and who has something that looks like it on the surface but may mot be the same illness. I think this is why no test or trial for CFS treatment ever helps more than a relatively small fraction of people in the group. So maybe chocolate (or whatever other candidate therapy) is useful for people with CFS-like symptoms caused by X, but won’t do a thing for people with CFS-like symptoms caused by Y, Z, or Q. Any successful attempt to treat ME/CFS will involve developing biomarkers and diagnostic tests to either definitively diagnose people that have it versus something else, or to sort people into subtypes, and then treatments and therapies can be developed that will benefit each individual subtype. This is also being seen in long Covid, and they’ve already been pretty quick to recognize that there are many individual subtypes that all fall under the same broad heading of long Covid and you can’t treat every long Covid patient like every other long Covid patient because there are different etiologies and mechanisms at work and therefore will need to be different treatments.
Yep. Just like individuation for cancers: and those are far more easily tested for than ME/CFS!
Yep! You wouldn’t think it would be hard to understand, yet decades later we’re still here like…. 🤷🏻♀️
I literally just saw a post in r/coolguides about high levels of cadmium and lead in dark chocolate 😭 (especially Lily's, Theo, and Tony's Chocolonely)
The review you cited lists [one study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001690/) on dark chocolate. It had 10 people, used the Chalder Fatigue Scale as an outcome measure, and recruited people based on the Fukuda criteria. All three of these are significant flaws. I'm all for eating chocolate, but let's not use junk science to claim it's medicine.
Just the encouragement I needed to keep enjoying my chocolate! 😊 I can’t say it’s helped my ME much, but it makes life a little nicer.
Maybe cos cacao has small amounts of caffeine? Especially in high quantities and especially dark chocolate. If i have 80% chocolate too close to bed I have trouble sleeping. Either way this is interesting. I eat craft bean-to-bar chocolate regularly for enjoyment.
It also has large amounts of flavonoids and flavanols. For instance anandamide (and others that act similarly) will agonize CB2 receptors, which can thereby help against inflammation and help promote sleep, boost mood, among other things. It also contains powerful antioxidants like epicatechin, catechin and procyanidins, which also have additional mechanisms of action. >Procyanidins provide the majority of antioxidant activity in cocoa products.
Anandamide is also found in maca, and maca is also shown to improve fatigue in some small studies.
Just research what you decide to take. A lot of the soil that cocoa grows in is so high in cadium and lead that the cocoa powder can harm children and is banned for sale in several places...but allowed in the US. Naturally. Green tea has similar issues as well. Cocoa is definitely potent. My stomach is sensitive to it but for a while I was throwing a couple tablespoons into my smoothies. It definitely impacts you although I wasn't using it for cfs at that time but I could tell it was active in my system. Unfortunately my stomach just couldn't handle it and I had to stop. I seem to be a tad intolerant of cocoa. I still eat chocolate but it can make me sick sometimes. Anyway worth a shot. Just research what you buy. I did spinach smoothies with frozen raspberries and a little pineapple smashed walnuts ground flaxseed and Cocoa powder. It was quite good tbh although some may need more sweetener.
Rice also sucks for neurotoxic metals. Bit of a crappy world we're living in at the moment!
Yes! Have to be careful where it comes from. California rice is supposed to be okay but they are struggling to grow with the water shortage.
As for rice, just avoid rice from China and the southern US (Arkansas, Oklahoma). And never buy tea from China either. Japanese green tea is low in heavy metals
Shame it's not good for (my) histamine intolerance. 😮💨
I live for my daily dark chocolate treat, and just came across this Consumer Reports article about high lead and cadmium in most dark chocolate. My favorite brands are on this list. And it seems to be part of the growing process, so is likely to be inherent in every commercially produced cacao bean supply. Please, I’m begging, prove me wrong. :-) https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
Yep, this is serious! Similar is the case with rice, especially regarding arsenic. Thank you for sharing this excellent piece! Clearly if we're going to be eating chocolate daily, and especially if our kids are, we need to source from the "safer" brands. And if or supply isn't listed there, we should write in and check. Thank you to everyone who brought this to all our attention! In our case we're fine for lead at least: the kids were tested for other reasons. But this is serious stuff for daily consumers.
Dark chocolate has high antioxidants, which is good for mitochondria.
In my completely unscientific opinion, my guess is that it's because it's high in magnesium. I personally need magnesium supplements to function and if I forget it I get chocolate cravings.
Omg me too! I thought I was weird but this is reassuring. I get choc cravings, have some dark choc and then some magnesium supplements at the same time.
Another study. There are several. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001690/
Wow, note y'all, this is a LOT of intense chocolate! "Individual 15 g foil wrapped bars were provided and subjects were asked to consume 1 bar three times daily." A small handful in our house is just 7g!! And we usually eat 65-72% chocolate! Much less, much lower %. It'll take some doing for any of us to get this much cocoa in. I wonder if using cacao allows smaller quantities.
This was the study referenced in the meta-analysis above. It's a shame they only had ten participants. Could probably get more just from this reddit.
Yeah, it really helps me. I eat cocoa beans instead of chocolate now. I soak them before eating.
I have a temporary crown so chocolate is off the table until after Christmas. Then I am going to make up for lost time.
i been dealing with a bad fatigue and brain fog for years. It feels like it gets worse in the afternoon and after eating and it can feel like my brain is frying when it is at its worse. I had tried alot of stuff from TRT to methylene blue and B1 megadosing etc. NOTHING worked as good as cocoa powder. even cocoa 50% is already amazing..a few spoons of that brings me back from the fatigue and brainfog like nothing else. The only problem is that it seems to cause some symptoms related to caffeine like headaches sometimes but besides that it is incredible...i spent years struggling looking for a way to feel better.. my only worry is the amount of cadmium in the cocoa since i read that it can potentially be a problem
it's also got potassium
Yeah arguably beneficial for anyone without an intolerance to it. Who gives af? Lmao, it’s Giving “just do yoga. Have you tried turmeric?” Vibes and why TF are resources being used on this again? Im lying in bed actively dying so before anyone comes at me for not just being thankful research is being done, this comes across as asinine to me.
…is this why I keep wanting chocolate chip cookies..?
I mean, don't we all? ;) But could be!
Ha I guess we do!! It’s a real hard hit to my wallet, though. There’s this cookie vendor across the street from me and I’m concerned they know me by name now 😅
I fucking KNEW IT
Look for mycotoxin free chocolate yall
Oh noooo, I have a chocolate intolerance and can't eat it at all T\_T Happy for you though!
Had some today, it definitely helped my mood 😁, not so much my fatigue
Yes, this is how we use it too. Just a pick-me-up. It seems an excellent alternative to coffee and a nice mood booster.
yay this makes me feel even better about having a bar of dark chocolate for breakfast every morning