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Health & Food: Dark Chocolate improves Insulin Resistance and Sensitivity, Decreases Blood Pressure
In this months issue of the Journal of Clinical Nutrition researchers report that the consumption of dark chocolate improves glucose metabolism and decreases blood pressure.
Cocoa is rich in flavanols, which are a class of polyphenols that are present in plants, and have different and many unknown health benefits. To study the effect of chocolate researchers wanted to compare white chocolate (just the butter of the chocolate without the cocoa) and dark chocolate which of course has the most cocoa.
They studied 15 healthy young adults with typical Italian diets that were given 100 g dark chocolate daily or 90 g white chocolate, each of which provided 480 kcal. The polyphenol contents of the dark and white chocolate were assumed to be 500 and 0 mg, respectively.
The subjects were divided into 2 groups, each of which ingested one of the types of chocolate for 15 day, then had no chocolate for a subsequent 7 day, and then ingested the other chocolate for an additional 15 days.
The authors found that the dark chocolate supplement was associated with improved insulin resistance and sensitivity and decreased blood pressure. White chocolate had no effect.
“the findings of this study are of particular interest in terms of identifying potentially healthy foods”
So it seems that eating some dark chocolate is actually proving good for your health. The darker the better and the way it is processed is also important because of the amount of flavanols. Let’s hope manufacturers are taking notice and begin producing healthier and better chocolate.
Both high blood pressure and diabetes 2 (reduced insulin sensitivity) are current health problems in our society and let’s hope that tasty foods like chocolate prove very healthy.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 3, 541-542, March 2005
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