Studies show that polyphenol-rich dark chocolate has health benefits for overweight females
UK scientists have clinically proven that consuming polyphenol-rich dark chocolate has health benefits for overweight and obese females, whilst showing adverse effects for polyphenol-deficient chocolate.
Evidence already shows that polyphenol-rich dark chocolate can benefit blood pressure and glucose levels in healthy people, thanks to dark chocolate’s antioxidant properties. Fewer studies have examined the involvement of the endocrine system – glands that secrete hormones – in mediating the cardiometabolic health-effects of polyphenols, until now.
Suzana Almoosawi from Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, and the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and her colleagues, applied these findings to a group of healthy women with a range of body mass indexes (BMIs). Obesity is often linked to numerous chronic diseases, such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes, so the team were keen to study the metabolic effects observed for different concentrations of polyphenols in dark chocolate, across a range of BMIs.
Read the full article in Chemistry World
Link to journal article
Differential effect of polyphenol-rich dark chocolate on biomarkers of glucose metabolism and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy, overweight and obese subjects: a randomized clinical trial
S Almoosawi et al
Food Funct., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2fo30060e
