Health and Wellness Product Continues to Examine Dark Chocolate

Health and Wellness Product has looked at the research coming out of Germany and the US and it seems that the flavonoid rich, dark chocolate may have an impact on high blood pressure, but what about the claims of lowering blood sugar levels?

There are over 20 million people with diabetes in the United States....that is a whopping 7% of the population! Could dark chocolate actually help lower blood sugar levels or even prevent diabetes?

This is an excerpt from a study in Japan:


3/21/2007 - Dietary supplementation with cacao liquor proanthocyanidins (CLPr) reduced blood glucose levels in obese diabetic mice, and may offer human diabetics significant benefits, says a new study from Japan.

"Dietary supplementation with CLPr can dose-dependently prevent the development of hyperglycaemia in diabetic obese mice," wrote lead author Makoto Tomaru in the journal Nutrition. "The dietary intake of food or drinks produced from cacao beans might be beneficial in preventing the onset of type-2 diabetes mellitus."

The potential health benefits of cocoa have been gaining increasing interest, with studies reporting that flavonoid-rich chocolate may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, according to Tomaru and co-workers, this is the first study to report that CLPr can prevent aggravation of type-2 diabetes mellitus.

The new study used three-week old female mice and randomly assigned them to eat the AIN-93 diet supplemented with 0, 0.5, or 1.0 per cent for cacao liquor proanthocyanidins (72 per cent total polyphenols) for three weeks.

At the end of the study the researchers report that the proanthocyanidins reduced blood glucose levels in a dose-dependent manner. Indeed, blood glucose levels after four and five weeks of age, and of fructosamine at six weeks of age were significantly lower than in those fed 0 per cent CLPr AIN-93 diet.

Body weights and food consumption did not differ significantly among the groups, said the researchers.

"In this study, the decreased levels of blood glucose may be involved in improvement of insulin resistance by antioxidative effects of CLPr," they said.

The one per cent dose used in this study would be equivalent to a daily polyphenol intake of five grams for a human, said Tomaru, or about 2.5 kg of normal chocolate. However, studies using flavonol-rich dark chocolate have reported positive effects with intakes of only 100 g of dark chocolate per day, providing a flavonol dose of 88 mg.

This sounds like a positive step forward with blood sugar research. More studies need to be done, but at least we can say that there is a good possibility that a product, like Xocai, that meets the dark chocolate requirements, might indeed help lower blood glucose levels.

Health and Wellness Product will keep your informed on the latest!