This Chocolate Helps Prevent Diabetes: Yes, No Jokes

Today we have come to tell you good news. eat chocolate It’s good for your health. In particular, it appears to significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Of course, before you run to reach for that delicious milk chocolate, salted caramel, and candy bar you’ve been keeping in the pantry, you should know that these are the only documented benefits dark chocolate.

In fact, the benefits of eating dark chocolate are becoming increasingly known. Chocolate is considered dark if it contains at least 43% cocoa. However, most studies agree that the benefits are clear. from 85% cocoa. New health benefits of this chocolate that were not previously known are gradually being documented. Now prevention type 2 diabetes was added to the list thanks to a study recently published by scientists from Harvard School of Public Health T.C. Chana.

These researchers analyzed data on eating habits 111,654 nurses those who were interviewed in 1970s and 1980s. In particular, they focused on what kind of chocolate did they eat? and, after an average of 25 years of follow-up, they analyzed possible unknown benefits to their health. The conclusion is that there is a high probability that it protects against type 2 diabetes. We can’t know for sure because this is an observational study, but it still provides a reason for further research in this direction.

Eating chocolate has more benefits than you think

For this study, people who took a daily amount of very high or very low calorie contentas it may also influence the risk of developing diabetes. Therefore, other risk factors were taken into account to isolate the effect of chocolate consumption as much as possible.

Thus, it was clear that those who ate 5 or more servings of dark chocolate per week They had a 21% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They also had better body weight control than others.

For those who ate milk chocolate, it was observed that they tended to gain weight, although there did not seem to be any effect on the risk of developing diabetes. White chocolate has not been analyzed, but we must remember that it is not actually chocolate, but sugar dough which, of course, negatively affects the risk of diabetes.

Limitations and Benefits

The authors of the study themselves warn that a cause-and-effect relationship cannot be established. This means that although there is a significant percentage of association between eating dark chocolate and not having type 2 diabetes, the cause has not been established and, until that is done, it cannot be ruled out that everything is a coincidence. Or even that there are other factors that were not taken into account. For example, people who eat dark chocolate typically perform healthier life. Overall, these healthy lifestyle factors were taken into account to isolate them from cocoa consumption, but some of them may have escaped attention.

In any case, the results are so significant that these scientists consider it more than justified to continue research in this direction. They believe that the reason for this protection may be due to the high flavanol content of cocoa. Dark chocolate has a high cocoa index, which will also mean high content flavanols. Additionally, milk and white chocolate are typically flavored with much more sugar.

Flavonols are plant-based compounds that are also found in fruits and vegetables. They have enormous antioxidant power.. They are part of a group of flavonoids whose protective role against type 2 diabetes has been studied repeatedly. Therefore, it is possible that with a small amount of research it will be easy to find the much-needed cause-and-effect relationship.

In the meantime, it won’t hurt to start eating more dark chocolate. Of course, it doesn’t matter what percentage of cocoa it contains as long as it’s accompanied by lacacito or clouds or whatever. sweet ingredientthe benefit is minimized until it almost disappears. This doesn’t mean that if we feel like flavored dark chocolate, there’s nothing wrong with consuming it from time to time. But we should not think that this will prevent diabetes. In fact, we will be buying tickets for the lottery. Let’s not demonize food, but let’s not look for benefits where there are none.