Great News for Dark Chocolate Lovers

If you love chocolate, you are far from alone. But do you know that not all chocolate is created equal. Dark chocolate is actually very good for your health.

While eating foods that contain sugar and saturated fat is often linked to chronic health conditions like diabetes, researchers from Harvard, in Boston, Massachusetts,  wanted to see if eating chocolate had any effect on the risk of type 2 diabetes. They found that eating dark chocolate regularly reduced the risk by 21 percent. Milk and white chocolate increased the risk, reported The Guardian.

This research is very important since around 830 million people globally have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization. Since diabetes can also lead to other health conditions, reducing the risk would help people live healthier lives. The study was published in the BMJ (formally the British Medical Journal) in December 2024.

How the study was conducted
The Harvard researchers looked at the data from three long-term studies – two from NHSII and one from Nurse’s Health Study that included almost 300,000 health professionals, according to EatingWell. After an initial baseline was collected, the participants filled out questionnaires every two years.

The study in BMJ was divided into two parts. The first looked at total chocolate consumption and if there was a link between it and the development of diabetes. The average age of the 192,000 participants that were used for this section was 47 at the baseline.

The second part looked at the diabetes risk by the type of chocolate; dark, milk, and white. More than 111,000 participants were included  with an average age of 64 at the baseline.

At first the studies did not include questions about which type of chocolate was consumed, this was not added until 2006. It made a large difference.

What the study found
The researchers found, after adjusting for lifestyle and diet. That five or more servings of chocolate showed a 10 percent lower risk of diabetes when compared to people who never ate chocolate. When broken down by type, people who consumed at least five servings of dark chocolate had a 21 percent. lower risk. People who combined dark chocolate consumption with a healthy diet showed a 34 percent lower risk.

The researchers suggest that the polyphenols – antioxidants – that are contained in dark chocolate may be responsible for the reduction of diabetes risk.  cocoa is loaded with flavan-3-ols (a type of polyphenol). The reason why dark chocolate is so much better for you is because it contains the most cocoa.

Flavan-3-ols helps to improve insulin sensitivity and protect pancreatic cells from oxidative stress. This can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. But there are other health habits that influence the risk too.

The study found that diet, physical activity, sleep quality and stress can also influence your risk level. It’s best to take a holistic approach to diabetes. But if you have a sweet tooth; a small amount of dark chocolate everyday may just be what the doctor ordered.