Cocoa is good for your intestines!

Chocolate makes you happy, you often hear around you! And I will tell you today, that is really true. I am talking about the unprocessed dark chocolate of 85% or higher with all its good nutrients still intact.

In late 2021, a study was published about dark chocolate and its effect on your mood and gut health. It may be new to you, but your gut and brain are constantly communicating with each other, this is called the brain-gut axis.

The study examined 48 men and women between the ages of 20 and 30. This was done using a randomized controlled trial. This is a controlled experiment in which random test subjects were divided into different groups, each with a different treatment, in order to determine the effect of the product (in this case dark chocolate).

In this study, participants were divided into 3 groups. There was a control group that received no chocolate, a group that received 10 grams of 70% dark chocolate (250 grams of polyphenols*) and a group that received 10 grams of 85% dark chocolate (400 grams of polyphenols*). To investigate whether the consumption of dark chocolate had an effect on mood in daily life, their mood was asked before and after the study. What we can conclude from the results is that the group that had eaten 85% dark chocolate for 3 weeks had a positive improvement in their negative emotional status. In the participants that consumed no or 70% dark chocolate, no effect was seen.

What was also found was that the gut bacteria changed in a positive way in the 85% dark chocolate group. These participants got a greater diversity of gut bacteria. And wow, the bacteria that is associated with a positive mood (the bacillus Blauria obeum) increased! Not such a crazy idea that these participants had a more positive mood in daily life.

This study shows that consuming dark chocolate from 85% reduces negative mood but that there is no effect at 70% dark chocolate or less. This may be due to the dose of polyphenols found in cocoa, these are important for positive mood.

We can therefore conclude that daily consumption of unprocessed dark chocolate positively influences the diversity of your gut bacteria and improves your psychological health via the brain-gut axis.

There are many more positive effects and properties of unprocessed dark chocolate that positively influence your health, brain, body and mind. Stay tuned, stay loved!

* Polyphenols are part of a large group of natural substances that we find in plants. They are known as antioxidants . Antioxidants fight free radicals. Free radicals are substances that are produced externally. However, they can also be produced by the body itself. These free radicals damage cell tissue. In addition, they promote cell aging and can damage DNA. Polyphenols are usually divided into subgroups. These are lignans, coumarins, stilbenes, flavonoids , neoflavonoids, isoflavonoids, quinones, hydrolyzable and condensed tannins .

SOURCE: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955286321002746?via%3Dihub