Introduction: Antioxidant agents such as cocoa could have some benefits in treatment of inflammation including periodontitis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of cocoa consumption on moderate chronic periodontitis. Materials &Methods: This single-blind randomized clinical trial study was performed on 40 subjects who were randomly divided into two groups. Treatment group r...

A healthy diet plays a key role in the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases. Dark chocolate in particular has been shown to improve endothelial functions and lipid profile and to have cardiovascular protective effects via an inhibitory action on platelet functions. Recently, several studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of chocolate, primarily on hypertension and othe...

Reducing the fat content of chocolate formulations is a major challenge for the confectionery industry. We report the suspension of aqueous microgel agar particles of up to 80% v/v within sunflower oil, cocoa butter, and ultimately chocolate. The optimised emulsification process involves a shear-cooling step. We demonstrate the versatility of our method when applied to white, milk, and dark cho...

The medicinal use of chocolate has a long history in North America dating back to the 16th century. From Mesoamerican Codices and European Treatises scholars have determined that for hundreds of years the beverage called chocolate was administered to the sick and prescribed homeopathically to prevent illness. Yet, little scholarship exists that focuses on medicinal chocolate usage in early Nort...

BACKGROUND Flavanol-rich chocolate and lycopene-rich tomato extract have attracted interest as potential alternative treatment options for hypertension, a known risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Treatment of prehypertension (SBP 120-139/DBP 80-89 mmHg) may forestall progression to hypertension. However, there has been only limited research into non-pharmacological treatmen...

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 u...

An analytical approach for the determination of milk fat and cocoa butter equivalents in milk chocolate is presented. By performing a single triacylglycerol analysis using gas liquid chromatography several useful pieces of information can be determined, i.e., (i) the milk fat content of the chocolate sample, (ii) the contribution of triacylglycerols originating from milk fat, (iii) the presence...

AIM to investigate the effect of consumption of dark chocolate 30 g/day for fifteen days on Nitric oxide (NO) serum levels and blood pressure in male and female employees with prehypertension. METHODS the study was a parallel randomized clinical trial. A total of thirty-two subjects was divided into two groups using block randomization. Sixteen subjects received 30 g/day dark chocolate and di...

Chocolate is often labeled with percent cocoa solids content. It is assumed that higher cocoa solids contents are indicative of higher polyphenol concentrations, which have potential health benefits. However, cocoa solids include polyphenol-free cocoa butter and polyphenol-rich nonfat cocoa solids (NFCS). In this study the strength of the relationship between NFCS content (estimated by theobrom...