Chocolate in research

Aside from benefits already discussed, research provides us with even more reasons to consume chocolate.

Japanese researchers (Matsui, 2005) have concluded that consuming cocoa can prevent obesity in high-fat diets. Their research shows that cocoa suppresses the expression of genes that code for enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids in the liver and white adipose tissues. Cocoa ingestion also decreases gene expression for fatty-acid transport molecules. In addition, cocoa enhances the mechanism by which more energy is obtained from fat tissues. As a result, rats who were fed a high-fat diet but supplemented with real cocoa had significantly lower body weights, less adipose tissue, and lower serum triglycerol concentrations than rats who were on the same high fat diet but did not supplement with cocoa. (1)

Furthermore, Swiss scientists (Martin, 2009) conducted a research that suggests that daily consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate during a 2-week period is sufficient to decrease levels of stress hormones. (2)

Sources to the research mentioned above:

1. - Matsui, N., et al. "Ingested Cocoa can Prevent High-fat Diet-induced Obesity by Regulating the Expression of Genes for Fatty Acid Metabolism." Nutrition 21 (2005): 594-601.

2. -  Martin, F.P., et al. "Metabolic effects of dark chocolate consumption on energy, gut microbiota, and stress-related metabolism in free-living subjects." J Proteome Res. 2009 Dec;8(12):5568-79.