Research has shown that dark chocolate can be good for the heart and more. Now scientists report evidence that chocolate might not be acting alone. In some cases, it may get help from bacteria hanging out in your gut. Those bacteria can break down certain compounds in the chocolate. And it’s those smaller molecules that can relax blood vessels to help the heart, a Louisiana team reported March 19 at the American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas, Texas.
Chocolate’s health claims are not new. Back in the 1500s, explorers venturing to the New World saw natives downing unsweetened dark-cocoa drinks to relieve everything from fevers to kidney problems. If that sounds crazy, consider this: Fairly recently scientists have discovered that some chemicals in chocolate can fight skin cancer. Others protect our teeth. And a host of studies have proposed that chocolate can benefit the heart.
In those heart studies, a group of specific compounds called flavanols appeared responsible. Not surprisingly, some dark chocolates contain these compounds. (To be clear, the good stuff comes from the cocoa beans — chocolate’s key ingredient — not the butter or sugar in chocolate candy. Those ingredients can clog arteries or feed bacteria that rot your teeth.)
The flavanol findings really puzzled chemists. Some noted that cocoa doesn’t appear to have enough of the beneficial compounds to help the heart. Many cocoa chemicals glom together. This creates super-structures, known as polymers. And polymers make up about 90 percent of the chemicals in cocoa powder. These biggies can’t help if they don’t get into the blood. But they are too large to pass out of the gut’s wall and into the bloodstream. Many scientists therefore suspected that cocoa chemicals must just stay in the digestive tract until they got excreted as waste.
But such scientists had failed to account for the activity of bacteria in our gut. Some of these bacteria may come from mom, at birth. Others hitchhike into the gut along with foods and beverages. Indeed, yogurt can deliver some especially beneficial ones.
Studying good ‘bugs’
People tend to think of germs — bacteria and other microbes — as bad. But many of the bacteria that move into the human gut actually offer a host of benefits. There are some that help break down foods, releasing nutrients. Others fight disease-causing germs that might taint foods. Still more manufacture vitamins from the foods we eat, keep the immune system healthy or neutralize poisons produced by disease-causing germs. By adulthood, the body hosts 10 times as many bacterial hitchhikers (many of them health-promoting) as they do actual human cells.
Could these beneficial gut bugs chew up the non-digestible cocoa polymers into smaller, healthy bits? A research team led by John Finley and Maria Moore set out to explore that possibility. Finley is a food scientist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Moore is a college student who works in his lab.
They developed an artificial digestive tract — a series of test tubes in which reactions can take place. These mimic what happens as the gut breaks down food. The researchers added the cocoa powder used to make dark chocolate along with stomach and pancreatic enzymes — chemicals that speed up chemical reactions during digestion. (They didn’t use dark-chocolate candy because its fat and sugar could have interfered with the reactions and altered the results.)
After letting these materials interact, the scientists washed the sample. That left behind a lot of undigested material. That’s what the scientists would work with. And this is where their experiment turned a bit, well, nasty.
After food passes through the stomach and small intestine, it enters the large intestine. This organ is loaded with bacteria. They convert any of food’s sugars or starches into acids, gases and alcohol. They do it through a process called fermentation. (Fermentation also gives rise to wine, beer and yogurt.)
But to trigger that fermentation, the researchers needed samples of the bacteria present in the human gut. Since they couldn’t reach in and scoop some out, they did the next best thing: They scavenged some that had been excreted in the researchers’ own stool (in other words, they pooped into a pot and saved it). Pee-ew!
“It was stinky,” Moore told Science News for Students. “But that’s why we keep air freshener in the lab.”
Fighting inflammation
The team fermented the undigested cocoa material by mixing it with these stool bacteria. And those microbes released a host of compounds. Among them were some of the same ones that blocked the inflammation of cardiovascular cells (those from the heart or blood vessels) in experiments that Finley’s lab had done earlier. Finley reported his team’s findings earlier this week.
Inflammation normally helps the body fight infections. But sometimes it goes into overdrive, quite inappropriately. This can happen, for instance, when people develop heart disease, diabetes or Alzheimer’s. All are disorders that commonly afflict older people. Small cocoa-based chemicals that relieve or delay inflammation might help people manage the ravages of these diseases.
“The results are exciting,” says Luke Howard. A food scientist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, he did not work on the new cocoa study. However, he adds, “there are limitations when you use a model system,” as the researchers did here. Health-promoting chemicals formed during fermentation would go through the gut wall, then into the blood. During that process, the chemicals can change somewhat. The model digestive tract that Finley’s team used lacked that last moving-through-the-gut-wall step.
Finley’s team hopes to get around this problem. It’s already planning to do a small trial in people. Each day, participants would consume about 50 grams of cocoa powder. It’s an amount comparable to what would go into three or four cups of dark hot chocolate. Researchers would later collect blood and stool samples to check for proteins that might signal a drop in inflammation.
Earlier this week, scientists in Boston announced plans for a similar study. Theirs won’t be such a sweet deal for participants, however. Rather than sipping cocoa or nibbling bonbons, they’ll get cocoa’s key nutrients in the form of a pill.
Finley thinks foods are better than pills. He mixes a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder into his oatmeal each morning. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was good for me,” he told Science News for Students.
งานวิจัยได้แสดงว่า ช็อกโกแลตสีเข้มอาจจะดีสำหรับหัวใจและอื่น ๆ ขณะนี้ นักวิทยาศาสตร์รายงานหลักฐานที่ช็อคโกแลตอาจทำหน้าที่ไม่เพียงอย่างเดียว ในบางกรณี มันอาจใช้ได้แบคทีเรียแขวนออกในลำไส้ของคุณ แบคทีเรียเหล่านี้สามารถแบ่งสารประกอบบางอย่างในช็อคโกแลต และเป็นโมเลกุลที่มีขนาดเล็กที่สามารถผ่อนคลายหลอดเลือดหัวใจ ช่วย ทีมรัฐลุยเซียนารายงานวันที่ 19 มีนาคมที่ประชุมสมาคมเคมีอเมริกันในดัลลัส เท็กซัสอ้างสุขภาพช็อกโกแลตของใหม่ไม่ได้ ใน 14 เอ็กซ์พลอเรอร์ยังโลกใหม่เห็นชาวพื้นเมืองจานเครื่องดื่มโกโก้เข้ม unsweetened บรรเทาตั้งแต่ fevers ปัญหาไต ถ้าว่าเสียงบ้า พิจารณานี้: ค่อนข้างล่าสุด นักวิทยาศาสตร์ได้ค้นพบว่า สารเคมีบางอย่างในช็อคโกแลตสามารถต่อสู้กับโรคมะเร็งผิวหนัง อื่น ๆ ป้องกันฟันของเรา และของการศึกษาได้เสนอว่า ช็อกโกแลตสามารถประโยชน์ห้องกลุ่มของสารประกอบที่เรียกว่า flavanols เฉพาะปรากฏไม่รับผิดชอบในการศึกษาเหล่านั้นหัวใจ ไม่น่าแปลกใจ บางช็อกโกแลตดำประกอบด้วยสารเหล่านี้ (พ้น สิ่งดีมาจากเมล็ดโกโก้-ช็อคโกแลตขององค์ประกอบที่สำคัญ — ไม่เนยหรือน้ำตาลในลูกกวาดช็อคโกแลต ส่วนผสมที่สามารถอุดตันหลอดเลือดแดง หรือเลี้ยงแบคทีเรียที่เน่าฟัน)The flavanol findings really puzzled chemists. Some noted that cocoa doesn’t appear to have enough of the beneficial compounds to help the heart. Many cocoa chemicals glom together. This creates super-structures, known as polymers. And polymers make up about 90 percent of the chemicals in cocoa powder. These biggies can’t help if they don’t get into the blood. But they are too large to pass out of the gut’s wall and into the bloodstream. Many scientists therefore suspected that cocoa chemicals must just stay in the digestive tract until they got excreted as waste.But such scientists had failed to account for the activity of bacteria in our gut. Some of these bacteria may come from mom, at birth. Others hitchhike into the gut along with foods and beverages. Indeed, yogurt can deliver some especially beneficial ones.Studying good ‘bugs’People tend to think of germs — bacteria and other microbes — as bad. But many of the bacteria that move into the human gut actually offer a host of benefits. There are some that help break down foods, releasing nutrients. Others fight disease-causing germs that might taint foods. Still more manufacture vitamins from the foods we eat, keep the immune system healthy or neutralize poisons produced by disease-causing germs. By adulthood, the body hosts 10 times as many bacterial hitchhikers (many of them health-promoting) as they do actual human cells.ข้อบกพร่องเหล่านี้เป็นประโยชน์ต่อลำไส้สามารถวเจตค่าโพลิเมอร์โกโก้ไม่ digestible เป็นบิตขนาดเล็ก มีสุขภาพดี ทีมวิจัยนำ โดยจอห์นฟินลีย์และมัวร์มาเรียตั้งออกไปสำรวจความเป็นไปได้ที่ ฟินลีย์เป็นนักวิทยาศาสตร์การอาหารมหาวิทยาลัยรัฐหลุยเซียน่าในแบตันรูช มัวร์เป็นนักเรียนวิทยาลัยที่ทำงานในห้องปฏิบัติการของเขาพวกเขาพัฒนาระบบทางเดินอาหารการประดิษฐ์ — ชุดของหลอดทดสอบที่ปฏิกิริยาสามารถเกิดขึ้น เหล่านี้เลียนแบบสิ่งที่เกิดขึ้น ตามลำไส้แบ่งอาหาร นักวิจัยเพิ่มผงโกโก้ที่ใช้ทำช็อกโกแล็ตเข้มท้องและตับอ่อนเอนไซม์คือสารเคมีที่เร่งปฏิกิริยาเคมีในระหว่างการย่อยอาหาร (ไม่ใช้ลูกกวาดช็อคโกแลตดำเนื่องจากสามารถติดได้ที่ปฏิกิริยาของไขมันและน้ำตาล และผลการเปลี่ยนแปลง)หลังจากปล่อยให้วัสดุเหล่านี้โต้ตอบ นักวิทยาศาสตร์การล้างตัวอย่าง ที่ทิ้งมากวัสดุ undigested นั่นคือสิ่งที่นักวิทยาศาสตร์จะทำงานด้วย และนี้เป็นที่ทดลองการเปิดบิต ดี น่ารังเกียจหลังจากอาหารผ่านเข้ากระเพาะอาหารและลำไส้เล็ก เข้าสู่ลำไส้ใหญ่ อวัยวะส่วนนี้จะถูกโหลด ด้วยแบคทีเรีย จะแปลงส่วนของน้ำตาลหรือสมบัติของกรด ก๊าซ และแอลกอฮอล์ พวกเขาผ่านเป็นกระบวนการที่เรียกว่าการหมัก (หมักยังก่อให้เกิดไวน์ เบียร์ และโยเกิร์ต)But to trigger that fermentation, the researchers needed samples of the bacteria present in the human gut. Since they couldn’t reach in and scoop some out, they did the next best thing: They scavenged some that had been excreted in the researchers’ own stool (in other words, they pooped into a pot and saved it). Pee-ew!“It was stinky,” Moore told Science News for Students. “But that’s why we keep air freshener in the lab.”Fighting inflammationThe team fermented the undigested cocoa material by mixing it with these stool bacteria. And those microbes released a host of compounds. Among them were some of the same ones that blocked the inflammation of cardiovascular cells (those from the heart or blood vessels) in experiments that Finley’s lab had done earlier. Finley reported his team’s findings earlier this week.Inflammation normally helps the body fight infections. But sometimes it goes into overdrive, quite inappropriately. This can happen, for instance, when people develop heart disease, diabetes or Alzheimer’s. All are disorders that commonly afflict older people. Small cocoa-based chemicals that relieve or delay inflammation might help people manage the ravages of these diseases.“The results are exciting,” says Luke Howard. A food scientist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, he did not work on the new cocoa study. However, he adds, “there are limitations when you use a model system,” as the researchers did here. Health-promoting chemicals formed during fermentation would go through the gut wall, then into the blood. During that process, the chemicals can change somewhat. The model digestive tract that Finley’s team used lacked that last moving-through-the-gut-wall step.Finley’s team hopes to get around this problem. It’s already planning to do a small trial in people. Each day, participants would consume about 50 grams of cocoa powder. It’s an amount comparable to what would go into three or four cups of dark hot chocolate. Researchers would later collect blood and stool samples to check for proteins that might signal a drop in inflammation.Earlier this week, scientists in Boston announced plans for a similar study. Theirs won’t be such a sweet deal for participants, however. Rather than sipping cocoa or nibbling bonbons, they’ll get cocoa’s key nutrients in the form of a pill.Finley thinks foods are better than pills. He mixes a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder into his oatmeal each morning. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was good for me,” he told Science News for Students.
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