Grapes & Green Tea Protect from Alzheimer’s

An ingredient inside grapes, green tea & chocolate blocks the toxic amyloid beta that can build up in the brain causing Alzheimer’s. This study was done on mice but the mice took the same amount of polyphenolic compounds inside grapes that an average person can take per day.
An analysis of the grape seeds used showed the major active ingredients are catechin and epicatechin, which are also abundant in tea and cocoa.

Another antioxidant from grapes that has been in the news lately is resveratrol. Resveratrol seems to only be effective at protecting against Alzheimer’s at extremely high doses. Catechins in the extract product studied appear to be effective at practical doses.

The Journal of Neuroscience
June 18, 2008 • Volume 28 Number 25 www.jneurosci.org
p 6388
Grape-Derived Polyphenolics Prevent A Oligomerization and Attenuate CognitiveDeterioration in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s DiseaseJun Wang, Lap Ho, Wei Zhao, Kenjiro Ono, Clark Rosensweig, Linghong Chen,Nelson Humala, David B. Teplow, and Giulio M. Pasinetti

Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate: Which is Healthier

Dark Chocolate has many antioxidants, the antioxidants known as polyphenols and catechins.

The polyphenol families of procyanidins & epicatechins are strong antioxidants also found in many plants and vegetables including red grapes & wine. Proanthocyanidins play a role in the making of collagen & elastin and can lead to a stronger circulatory system. Proanthocyanidins are also shown to speed up recovery from plactic surgery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proanthocyanidin

Catechins, in particular epicatechin found in dark chocolate, can reduce the risk of four of the major health problems: stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catechins

Milk Chocolate has no antioxidant activity due to milk binding the antioxidants. To take advantage of the antioxidant activity of chocolate you need to have 70% cocoa solids and no milk.
http://www.med.umich.edu/UMIM/clinical/pyramid/chocolate.htm