Lately, the good news for chocolate lovers has multiplied – better if it is black, without added milk and sugar -: it has been shown, for example, that it is a heart-healthy food.
In various experiments with volunteers, the researchers found that a small daily dose significantly lowers blood pressure and increases blood fluidity. It is also known to increase insulin sensitivity, even in people who do not have diabetes. But until now, the scientific community did not know why these beneficial effects occurred.
As John Finley of Louisiana State University has just announced, it seems that certain beneficial substances in cocoa reach the colon – the final stretch of the digestive system – and there they are fermented by the “good” microorganisms of our bacterial flora.
Thanks to this chemical process, natural flavonoids – among which are the antioxidants catechin and epicatechin – are transformed into smaller anti-inflammatories that can be absorbed into the blood.
To find out, the experts made a kind of artificial digestive system, where they recreated the action of gastric juices on dark chocolate, and collected bacteria from the stool donated by healthy volunteers.
Thus they were able to observe what exactly the bacteria were doing with the compounds that had not digested these juices before. In addition, Finley has also pointed out that the polyphenols – to which the flavonoids belong – abundant in cocoa stimulate the production of beneficial microbes and help metabolize fibers into fatty acids. All advantages.
