New evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress
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Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut
Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects
Dietary preferences influence basal human metabolism and gut
microbiome activity that in turn may have long-term health
consequences. The present study reports the metabolic responses of
free living subjects to a daily consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate
for up to 14 days. A clinical trial was performed on a population of
30 human subjects, who were classified in low and high anxiety traits
using validated psychological questionnaires. Biological fluids (urine
and blood plasma) were collected during 3 test days at the beginning,
midtime and at the end of a 2 week study. NMR and MS-based
metabonomics were employed to study global changes in metabolism due
to the chocolate consumption. Human subjects with higher anxiety trait
showed a distinct metabolic profile indicative of a different energy
homeostasis (lactate, citrate, succinate, trans-aconitate, urea,
proline), hormonal metabolism (adrenaline, DOPA, 3-methoxy-tyrosine)
and gut microbial activity (methylamines, p-cresol sulfate,
hippurate). Dark chocolate reduced the urinary excretion of the stress
hormone cortisol and catecholamines and partially normalized stress-
related differences in energy metabolism (glycine, citrate, trans-
aconitate, proline, β-alanine) and gut microbial activities (hippurate
and p-cresol sulfate). The study provides strong evidence that a daily
consumption of 40 g of dark chocolate during a period of 2 weeks is
sufficient to modify the metabolism of free living and healthy human
subjects, as per variation of both host and gut microbial metabolism.