Yet another amazing benefit of eating dark chocolate

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 by: J. Anderson
Tags: dark chocolate, cardiovascular health, diabetes

(NaturalNews) The list of health benefits attributed to eating dark chocolate continues to grow! Now, new research published in American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry indicates that dark chocolate can help prevent type 2 diabetes and even obesity! The scientists found that in mice the administration of a certain antioxidant in dark chocolate lowered their blood sugar levels and prevented the mice from gaining excess weight!

The Study

The mice were fed diets of varying fat levels along with different types of flavanols (antioxidants) in chocolate. The cocoa of dark chocolate is one of the most flavanol-rich foods we know of! It was found that one type of flavanol called "oligomeric procyanidins" (PCs) was able to prevent mice from gaining excess weight even when they were fed a high-fat diet! Not only that, but these PCs may also be able to prevent type 2 diabetes, because they were able to improve glucose tolerance in the mice. The researchers said, "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 Benefits of Dark Chocolate Don't Stop There

Dark chocolate has also been found to be heart-friendly, because it improves and restores flexibility to arteries! It also helps prevent blood cells from sticking to and accumulating on walls of blood vessels! The study published last month in The FASEB Journal determined that preventing the adhesion of cells to blood vessel walls and reversing artery stiffness could greatly reduce atherosclerosis! Once again, the main factor that was attributed with these amazing effects was the flavanol content of dark chocolate!

Another great benefit of dark chocolate is that it can help prevent strokes if eaten regularly. Research out of Canada determined that those who ate chocolate regularly had a reduced risk of stroke. Likewise, if regular consumers did have a stroke, their risk of dying was half that of people who didn't consume chocolate on a regular basis! The individuals who were considered chocolate eaters ate at least 50 grams of chocolate per week.

Lastly, it seems that this miracle food can even help prevent cancer! A study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research demonstrated that cocoa has many anticarcinogenic effects. The team was able to determine that the daily consumption of cocoa can help negate oxidative stress (which induces inflammation) which can be a common precursor of colon cancer. They found that consuming cocoa daily could help prevent the progression of colon cancer!

Conclusion

If you are going to consume dark chocolate for some of these health attributes, make sure it has a high cocoa content and therefore a high flavanol content; make sure it's at least 70% cocoa! As it helps prevent cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, obesity and possibly diabetes, dark chocolate seems to be a great natural remedy! So go ahead, don't feel guilty for eating that piece of dark chocolate! You could be doing yourself a healthy favor!

Sources for this article include:

http://www.acs.org

http://www.sciencedaily.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

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