Thursday 05/December/2024 – 10:50 AM
A new study from Harvard University revealed that eating at least 5 small servings of dark chocolate each week may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 21%. In fact, the study found that with dark chocolate consumption increasing from no to five servings. , the benefits also increased.
Eating dark chocolate every week reduces the risk of diabetes
According to CNN, experts explained that the chocolate must be dark in order for it to serve the purpose, as the study found that eating milk chocolate is associated with excessive weight gain over time, which mainly contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Dark and milk chocolate contain similar levels of added sugar, fat and calories, but the most important difference is that dark chocolate contains more cocoa, said lead author Bincai Liu, a doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard College.
The reason why dark chocolate reduces the risk of infection
Cocoa is the raw, least processed form of chocolate harvested from the Theobroma cacao tree. Cocoa contains the highest levels of flavanols, so the higher the percentage of cocoa listed on the label of a dark chocolate bar, the more flavanols it contains. Flavanols act as antioxidants and reduce inflammation that It can exacerbate chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Although the study could not prove cause and effect, it is possible that the higher levels of flavanols in cocoa are the reason for the different effects of the two types of chocolate.
Animal studies and small-scale human experimental studies have shown that bioactive compounds in cocoa called flavanols improve insulin sensitivity, said Dr. Nestoras Mathioudakis, associate medical director of the Diabetes Prevention and Education Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. and reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, all of which are components of the pathophysiology of diabetes.
