- We have seen how dark chocolate may reduce the risk of stroke .
- Many health experts call it a super food.
- Eating organic extra dark chocolate is a delicious way to satisfy sweet cravings while taking care of your health at the same time.
- The benefits keep piling up on dark chocolate, and now scientists are discovering ingredients in dark chocolate that could help prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- They found a particular antioxidant in cacao that prevented lab mice from gaining excess and weight and lowered their blood sugar. The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
- Andrew P. Neilson, the leader of this study explained that cacao, which is the basic ingredient in chocolate, is very rich in flavanols. Foods that are high in flavanols have shown the ability to fight weight gain and reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes. However, not all flavanols are exactly the same, and chocolate contains a number of different flavanols. So Neilson and his team decided to separate the flavanols and study each one individually.
- The team fed mice various diets, including diets that were high in fat and low in fat, and supplemented these foods with the different flavanols. They learned that when adding a specific type of flavanol called oligomeric procyanidins (PCs) made the biggest difference. PCs also improved glucose tolerance, which could potentially prevent type-2 diabetes. “Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study,” the researchers state.
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- For how dark chocolate can make you thinner.
- For how chocolate is becoming a superfood.
- REFERENCES:
- 1. “Oligomeric Cocoa Procyanidins Possess Enhanced Bioactivity Compared to Monomeric and Polymeric Cocoa Procyanidins for Preventing the Development of Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Impaired Glucose Tolerance during High-Fat Feeding.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
- 2. “Key Chocolate Ingredients Could Help Prevent Obesity, Diabetes.” ACS. ACS, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
- 3. “Key Chocolate Ingredients Could Help Prevent Obesity, Diabetes.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
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