Chocolate could prevent obesity and diabetes, study suggests

More than a third of US adults are obese and are, therefore, at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. But new research suggests a surprising prevention strategy for both conditions - eating chocolate.
In a mouse study, led by Andrew P. Neilson of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, researchers discovered that a certain antioxidant in cocoa - the main ingredient in chocolate - prevented mice from gaining weight and lowered their blood sugar levels.
This is not the only study to suggest that consuming chocolate can prevent such health conditions.
Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that chocolate, as well as wine and berries, protects against type 2 diabetes, while other research found that teens who eat lots of chocolate tend to be slimmer.
Such studies claim that the reason chocolate may have these health benefits is because of the flavanols it contains. These are types of antioxidants.
But the researchers of this most recent study say that not all flavanols are the same. In fact, cocoa has several different types.

Good news for chocolate lovers: a certain flavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry, the investigators set out to determine exactly which flavanol may be responsible for preventing weight gain and lowering blood glucose levels.
For the research, the investigators assigned mice to one of six different diets for 12 weeks.
These consisted of high- and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplemented with either monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric procyandins (PCs) - types of flavanols. Mice were given 25 milligrams of these flavanols each day for every kilogram of their body weight (25 mg/kg).

Oligomeric procyandins most effective

The research team found that a high-fat diet supplemented with oligomeric PCs was the most effective for maintaining weight of the mice and improving glucose tolerance - a factor that could help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Commenting on the findings, the researchers say:

"Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study.
Additional studies of prolonged feeding of flavanol fractions in vivo are needed to further identify the fractions with the highest bioactivities and, therefore, the greatest potential for translation to human clinical applications at reasonable doses."

The investigators point out that the doses of flavanols used in this study are significantly lower than doses used in past research and are more feasible when translated into flavanol levels for human consumption.
"Therefore, our data suggest that moderate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa powder have the potential to be more effective in human clinical trials than previously thought," they add.
According to previous research, the health benefits of chocolate may reach further than decreasing the likelihood of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Medical News Today recently reported on a study claiming that eating 70 g of dark chocolate every day could reduce the risk of atherosclerosis - the thickening and hardening of the arteries.
But interestingly, this study did not attribute this benefit to the flavanols that chocolate contains. Study participants ate either regular dark chocolate or chocolate with added flavanols. Both types of chocolate had the same effect.
"We provide a more complete picture of the impact of chocolate consumption in vascular health and show that increasing flavanol content has no added beneficial effect on vascular health," says study researcher Prof. Diederik Esser, of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University, both in the Netherlands.
Other research claims that hot chocolate could help prevent memory decline. Again, the researchers say this finding was not down to flavanols.
Our article on the health benefits of chocolate reveals some of the other ways in which chocolate may be good for you.

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Too much protein in middle age 'as bad as smoking'

Two new studies conclude that low protein intake may hold the key to a long and healthy life, at least until old age. They also emphasize the need to examine not only calories when deciding what constitutes a healthy diet, but also where those calories come from - such as whether protein is animal or plant-based.
Another key finding is the suggestion that while a high-protein diet may in the short term help people lose weight and body fat, in the long term it may harm health and reduce lifespan.
Both studies are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The first study was led by Valter Longo, a professor at the University of Southern California, who counts longevity and cell biology among his areas of expertise.
He and his colleagues showed that high protein consumption is linked to increased risk of cancer, diabetes and death in middle-aged adults, although this was not the case for older adults who may benefit from moderate protein consumption. Also, the effect is much reduced when the protein comes from plant sources.
The second study was led by Stephen Simpson, a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia, whose group works at the interface of physiology, ecology, and behavior. From studying mice, he and his fellow authors concluded that diets low in protein and high in carbohydrates are linked to the longest lifespans.
Both studies suggest it is not just calories, but also diet composition - particularly in terms of amount and type of protein - that may determine the length and health of a lifespan.
Prof. Longo says:

"We studied simple organisms, mice and humans, and provide convincing evidence that a high- protein diet - particularly if the proteins are derived from animals - is nearly as bad as smoking for your health."

High-protein diet had highest risk, except in older adults

In their study, Prof. Longo and colleagues analyzed data on over 6,800 American adults who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, a US national survey that assesses health and diet.
They found that:

The researchers found that consuming a high-protein diet in middle age significantly increases the likelihood of dying from cancer or diabetes.

• Participants aged 50 and over who said they ate a high-protein diet were four times more likely to die from cancer or diabetes, and twice as likely to die from any cause, in the following 18 years.
• Those who consumed moderate amounts of protein had a three-fold higher chance of dying of cancer.
• These effects either reduced or disappeared altogether among participants whose high-protein diet was mainly plant-based.
• However, in those aged 65 and over, the effect was nearly the opposite - high protein intake was linked to a 60% reduced risk of dying from cancer and a 28% reduced risk of dying from any cause, with similar effects for moderate protein intake.

The researchers defined a high-protein diet as one where at least 20% of the calories consumed come from protein.

Growth hormone, amino acid damage, ability to process protein may be key factors

The team suggests, because of evidence from other studies, that growth hormone and the growth factor IGF-1 may be responsible for these effects, as Prof. Longo explains:
"Notably, the activity of these factors, but also body weight, declines naturally with aging, which may explain why older people not only did not benefit but appeared to do worse if they ate a low-protein diet."
Cell experiments have suggested the amino acids that proteins are made of can reduce cellular protection and increase damage to DNA, both of which might explain why high-protein intake is linked to cancer.
Also, experiments in mice have shown that the body's ability to process protein declines with age.

Researchers trialed 25 different diets in hundreds of mice

In the second study, Prof. Simpson and his group trialed the effects of 25 different diets on hundreds of mice to see how different amounts and types of proteins, fats and carbohydrates affected energy intake, metabolic health, aging and lifespan.
They discovered that:

• Mice on diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates had reduced food intake and lower levels of body fat, but they also died earlier and had poorer cardiometabolic health.
• Mice on low-protein, high-fat diets had the poorest health and shortest lifespans.
• The healthiest, longest living mice were those on diets high in carbohydrates and low in protein - this was in spite of increased food intake and having higher levels of body fat.
• A calorie-restricted diet did not increase lifespan - which is contrary to evidence from previous studies on mice, other animals, yeast and worms that show calorie restriction lengthens life as long as supplemented with essential nutrients.

Prof. Simpson says:

"We have shown explicitly why it is that calories aren't all the same - we need to look at where the calories come from and how they interact. This research has enormous implications for how much food we eat, our body fat, our heart and metabolic health, and ultimately the duration of our lives."

He and his colleagues suggest the ideal diet for a long and healthy life is one with moderate amounts of high-quality protein, low in fat, and high in complex carbohydrates.
Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned of a study by researchers at the University of Granada in Spain that found high-protein diets may increase risk of kidney disease.

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