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Interview With Howard Shapiro

Aired August 27, 2003 - 13:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Anyone who loves chocolate may love this. A new studs suggests eating dark chocolate can lower your blood pressure. Researchers admit the findings of the small study need to be confirmed by a larger one. So before you pig out on dark chocolate, you may want to hear what New York weight loss specialist Dr. Howard Shapiro has to say about the study.
Doctor, it is a small amount of people, isn't it? We need to listen to that.

DR. HOWARD SHAPIRO, WEIGHT LOSS SPECIALIST: Well, it's a very small amount of people. We're talking about 13 people and we're talking about changes in the top number of your blood pressure of five points and then the bottom number of your blood pressure of two points. And this is really not a significant test -- or a significant study at all.

But there have been other studies prior to this that lead us to believe there may be some antioxidants or ployphenols which are in dark chocolate that do lower blood pressure. But this study itself, I wouldn't go out and run and by the candy bars yet.

PHILLIPS: That's right. You still have to think about all the fat and the sugar, right?

SHAPIRO: Yes. You know if you're eating a lot of candy, a lot of chocolate and that's the way you want to treat your blood pressure you have an excellent chance of gaining weight and if you gain weight you may increase your blood pressure and do just the opposite.

Also there's a lot of other healthy ways to lower blood pressure besides getting chocolate. I mean this is just an early finding. It's a suggestion. There has been some proof this may help. And the darker the chocolate, the better.

It's because of the anti-oxidants which may reduce the vessel walls so that the smooth vessel walls if they're relaxed, then what happens is your blood pressure may drop. So this may be effective and it will probably benefit people in the feature if it's found to be really true that are of normal weight, that add a candy bar in a day, in addition to a lot of other things, to help keep them normal.

PHILLIPS: All right, so, Doctor, I was reading a little bit of this study and some other studies that were done. And I was reading here that cocoa beans contain plant chemicals called falvonoids. I guess a kind of antioxidant that's in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. OK, and that some studies say that these falvonoids protect the heart from damaging effects of unstable oxygen compounds, et cetera, et cetera. OK, Tell us what that means and how do you balance out flavonoids?

SHAPIRO: Basically, these are, again, antioxidants, and the antioxidants help protect our heart from heart disease and help protect our blood vessels, help protects us from cancer. So any foods that have anti-oxidants, it's a benefit.

And in addition, chocolate also has -- the cocoa bean is a saturated fat but the saturated fat does not elevate your cholesterol. So lots of health benefits, but it's not the thing you want to run out and do immediately.

And as you said, some anti-oxidants are found in fruit and vegetables and a lot of other foods. So there's many ways of eating healthy before you start stocking up on these chocolate bars.

PHILLIPS: And can that also help reduce possible blood clotting?

SHAPIRO: Well, it's felt that it may because what it -- what some of the study show is that it may help slow down the oxidation of the low density lipper proteins, which are the bad lipper proteins, which attach themselves to the wall of the blood vessels and therefore cause some of these problems. So it could quite possibly be effective in that.

PHILLIPS: Now for someone who's really, really overweight, I mean, they shouldn't even be thinking about this right? Because the last thing you should be having is a lot of sugar and fat and chocolate.

SHAPIRO: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: So it really depends on your body?

SHAPIRO: It really depends on your body and, for anybody, I wouldn't run out and buy the chocolate right now to treat high blood pressure.

You know in the future if studies continue to show this promising news, then people who are of normal weight may want to add it to their normal diet, like adding a glass of wine a day helps with the cardiac system.

So there are things you can do. I wouldn't run out and buy the chocolate now. And if you're overweight, I wouldn't even consider it an option because it's not the right food for somebody that's overweight. And if you're diabetic, obviously, you can't choose this.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dr. Howard Shapiro, your book, "Picture Perfect Weight Loss." Thank you so much for shedding a little light on that. We're a little disappointed about no chocolate binges but we get it.

SHAPIRO: Not yet.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Doctor.

SHAPIRO: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 27, 2003 - 13:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Anyone who loves chocolate may love this. A new studs suggests eating dark chocolate can lower your blood pressure. Researchers admit the findings of the small study need to be confirmed by a larger one. So before you pig out on dark chocolate, you may want to hear what New York weight loss specialist Dr. Howard Shapiro has to say about the study.
Doctor, it is a small amount of people, isn't it? We need to listen to that.

DR. HOWARD SHAPIRO, WEIGHT LOSS SPECIALIST: Well, it's a very small amount of people. We're talking about 13 people and we're talking about changes in the top number of your blood pressure of five points and then the bottom number of your blood pressure of two points. And this is really not a significant test -- or a significant study at all.

But there have been other studies prior to this that lead us to believe there may be some antioxidants or ployphenols which are in dark chocolate that do lower blood pressure. But this study itself, I wouldn't go out and run and by the candy bars yet.

PHILLIPS: That's right. You still have to think about all the fat and the sugar, right?

SHAPIRO: Yes. You know if you're eating a lot of candy, a lot of chocolate and that's the way you want to treat your blood pressure you have an excellent chance of gaining weight and if you gain weight you may increase your blood pressure and do just the opposite.

Also there's a lot of other healthy ways to lower blood pressure besides getting chocolate. I mean this is just an early finding. It's a suggestion. There has been some proof this may help. And the darker the chocolate, the better.

It's because of the anti-oxidants which may reduce the vessel walls so that the smooth vessel walls if they're relaxed, then what happens is your blood pressure may drop. So this may be effective and it will probably benefit people in the feature if it's found to be really true that are of normal weight, that add a candy bar in a day, in addition to a lot of other things, to help keep them normal.

PHILLIPS: All right, so, Doctor, I was reading a little bit of this study and some other studies that were done. And I was reading here that cocoa beans contain plant chemicals called falvonoids. I guess a kind of antioxidant that's in fruits, vegetables, tea and red wine. OK, and that some studies say that these falvonoids protect the heart from damaging effects of unstable oxygen compounds, et cetera, et cetera. OK, Tell us what that means and how do you balance out flavonoids?

SHAPIRO: Basically, these are, again, antioxidants, and the antioxidants help protect our heart from heart disease and help protect our blood vessels, help protects us from cancer. So any foods that have anti-oxidants, it's a benefit.

And in addition, chocolate also has -- the cocoa bean is a saturated fat but the saturated fat does not elevate your cholesterol. So lots of health benefits, but it's not the thing you want to run out and do immediately.

And as you said, some anti-oxidants are found in fruit and vegetables and a lot of other foods. So there's many ways of eating healthy before you start stocking up on these chocolate bars.

PHILLIPS: And can that also help reduce possible blood clotting?

SHAPIRO: Well, it's felt that it may because what it -- what some of the study show is that it may help slow down the oxidation of the low density lipper proteins, which are the bad lipper proteins, which attach themselves to the wall of the blood vessels and therefore cause some of these problems. So it could quite possibly be effective in that.

PHILLIPS: Now for someone who's really, really overweight, I mean, they shouldn't even be thinking about this right? Because the last thing you should be having is a lot of sugar and fat and chocolate.

SHAPIRO: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: So it really depends on your body?

SHAPIRO: It really depends on your body and, for anybody, I wouldn't run out and buy the chocolate right now to treat high blood pressure.

You know in the future if studies continue to show this promising news, then people who are of normal weight may want to add it to their normal diet, like adding a glass of wine a day helps with the cardiac system.

So there are things you can do. I wouldn't run out and buy the chocolate now. And if you're overweight, I wouldn't even consider it an option because it's not the right food for somebody that's overweight. And if you're diabetic, obviously, you can't choose this.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dr. Howard Shapiro, your book, "Picture Perfect Weight Loss." Thank you so much for shedding a little light on that. We're a little disappointed about no chocolate binges but we get it.

SHAPIRO: Not yet.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Doctor.

SHAPIRO: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com