14 DAY TRIAL // Chocolate might be fattening but cocoa has a protective effect against heart diseases, and the reason for this was found by a team of researchers at Linköping University in Sweden.
16 healthy, non-smoking volunteers were recruited for the study, and they were not allowed to take any pharmaceutical products for two weeks.
During the last two days, they were also forbidden to eat chocolate or anything that could have similar compounds, like several kinds of berries and fruits, and they couldn't drink coffee, tea or wine.
The ten men and six women were aged between 20 and 45 years old, and the day of the study they were given 75 grams of unsweetened chocolate with a cocoa content of 72 percent.
Before eating the chocolate, blood sample were taken, and then again half an hour, one hour and three hours afterward.
In the blood samples taken three hours after the experiment, the ACE (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme) activity was significantly inhibited.
The average activity was 18 percent lower than before the dose of cocoa, and this is actually comparable to the effect of drugs that inhibit ACE, that health are professionals use as a first-choice treatment for high blood pressure.
The angiotensins are peptides (compounds smaller than proteins) that act as vasoconstricting agents (they cause blood vessels to narrow), and rise the blood pressure.
When the activity of the enzyme declines, the blood pressure decreases with time, but as expected, the experimentation period was too short, so no such effect was noticed in the subjects.
The idea of the experiment is that when the group of volunteers ate a relatively large piece of dark chocolate, it inhibited the ACE in their bodies.
Ingrid Persson, the head of the group of drug researchers said that “we have previously shown that green tea inhibits the enzyme ACE, which is involved in the body’s fluid balance and blood pressure regulation.
“Now we wanted to study the effect of cocoa, since the active substances catechins and procyanidines are related.”
But Persson said that the goal of this research was not the development of a new drug, AlphaGalileo reports.
“Our findings indicate that changes in lifestyle with the help of foods that contain large concentrations of catechins and procyaninides prevent cardiovascular diseases,” she explained.
The research is being published in Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.