There’s no shortage of ways to boost your longevity — even during peak holiday season.
Over the past month, I’ve heard more and more whispers of optimized hot cocoa. Online, influencers swear by nighttime hot cocoa from MoonBrew and Beam, containing magnesium, l-theonine, and reishi to promote deeper sleep. Brands like CocoaVia and Black Forest sell cocoa flavanol powder, a cocoa compound said to boost heart health. Just Ingredients’ hot chocolate, meanwhile, boasts being sugar-free and includes collagen, ashwaganda, and lion’s mane for “added benefits.” Ballerina Farm recently launched a “bone broth hot cocoa” with protein, collagen, and amino acids — purportedly to help with everything from gut to joint health.
Part of the appeal is the process of stirring a cozy drink instead of popping another multivitamin. “You’re creating an experience out of your supplement,” Jordan Glenn, the head of science at SuppCo, a supplement tracking company, told Business Insider.
While drinking a multi-supplement concoction can feel like a fun solution to capsule fatigue, he said it doesn’t necessarily make the most sense, from a health standpoint. Supplement-infused hot cocoa can be pricey — some breaking down to about $2 a cup — with lower-than-recommended doses of the supplements in question.
I’ll go even further and say: let holiday treats be holiday treats.
Yes, it’s always good to cut down on sugar, and yes, the average Swiss Miss hot chocolate contains a few emulsifiers I’d rather not think about. But in the grand scheme of your health, concrete research shows it’s better to have the occasional sugar-bomb hot cocoa (mini marshmallows and all) than knock back a cup of the “healthy” stuff every night.
Dark chocolate is a health food again
Because cacao beans have high levels of heart-healthy antioxidants and flavanols, dark chocolate (the kind with the least sugar) was promoted as a health food for years.
Many headlines missed the nuances — primarily that relying on chocolate for nutrients isn’t a good idea. “I don’t think anybody is going to eat enough chocolate to bring their cholesterol and blood pressure down without doing a lot of other damage to blood sugar, weight, and things like that,” Lauren Gilstrap, MD, a cardiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Center, previously told Business Insider.
Furthermore, she said that the healthiest dark chocolate contains an 80% or more concentration of cacao — more of a bitter brick than a Godiva truffle.
If one is determined to chug goblets of 90% pure cacao for the sake of lowering their biological age, they’re free to try. But there are other downsides to painstakingly fixating on longevity.
It’s a problem Dr. Steven Austad, the scientific director of a nonprofit researching healthy aging, has increasingly noticed in his field. “If you spend all your time thinking about how long you’re going to live, you kind of forget to live,” he previously told Business Insider.
Big promises in a bigger cup
Overall, Glenn said that most of the aforementioned hot chocolate powders are fine to take at the recommended doses because, again, they already contain low levels of each supplement.
He said that out of all the hot chocolates, Ballerina Farm’s appeared to be the only one with added sugar — something to consider for those trying to cut back.
The only cocoa Glenn advised thinking about was the powder from Beam, which contains melatonin and is marketed as a nightly supplement.
“Psychologically, people can be like, ‘well, if I don’t have this, I can’t sleep well,'” he said. “I don’t recommend people take melatonin every day, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Beam did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
He said the biggest question to ask yourself is what problem you’re trying to fix, and how the supplement will help. Otherwise, you fall into the trap of over-optimizing — or just wasting money.
“There’s this longevity boom right now,” he said. “‘If you’re not doing infrared and sauna and cold baths and have a 15-supplement stack, you’re probably going to die tomorrow.’ We kind of lose the plot.”
For best results, keep it simple
The great news is you don’t need to drink optimized hot cocoa for better health (unless you genuinely love the flavor).
Plenty of centenarians drink alcohol and eat sweets, both in moderation. The more meaningful secrets to a long life are less about scrutinizing your hot chocolate ingredients and more about the basics: exercising regularly, eating as many whole foods as you can, getting enough sleep, and spending time with loved ones.
Glenn echoed the same, noting that supplements can only provide “micro benefits” to an already healthy lifestyle.
“If you’re trying to use this hot cocoa supplement because you’re staying up till 3:00 AM streaming Netflix and you feel sleepy, that’s not how it works,” he said.
So have that powdered hot chocolate that brings you back to your childhood snow days, before you had an airtight morning routine. Better yet: clink that mug with a friend.
