Could dark chocolate boost your athletic performance? By Team Viva
Researchers are casting their eye over the growing benefits of dark chocolate on health to see if it can translate into improved athletic performance as well.
A research carried by Deakin University in Australia listed health benefits of consuming dark chocolate, especially for athletes.
Dark chocolate contains large amounts of cocoa, which is the seed portion of the its tree. This is rich in a group of compounds called flavanols. Originally discovered because of their potent antioxidant activity, these have been found to contain many health benefits. While cocoa is rich in flavanols, fruits, vegetables, red wine and tea all also contain significant amounts of this latest natural wonder.
Not just an antioxidant, flavanols can improve blood flow, reduce oxygen cost, improve insulin sensitivity and improve immune responsiveness. They help achieve this through increased bioavailability and bioactivity of nitric oxide. The potential benefits from flavanols on nitric oxide production tick many of the boxes that athletes are looking for in improving performance.
Most of the research on dark chocolate has looked at cardiovascular health in people with pre-existing medical conditions, with only a limited focus put on exercise performance in a more healthy population.
On your bike
Putting dark chocolate to the exercise supplement test, nine moderately-trained male participants volunteered to undertake a series of baseline tests looking at their maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), lung gas exchange measures and two-minute exercise bike time trial performance. They performed each trial two weeks apart under conditions of either consuming daily 40 grams of dark chocolate or white chocolate (which contains no polyphenols) leading up to the trial.
Dark chocolate consumption improved time trial performance relative to both the baseline conditions and also white chocolate consumption conditions. This equated to a 17 per cent greater distance covered when eating dark chocolate compared to the start of the experiment and 13 per cent more distance covered compared to eating white chocolate.
There was also a significant six per cent improvement in VO2max under the dark chocolate conditions compared to baseline conditions. The same six per cent improvement was also seen when dark chocolate was eaten compared to white chocolate, but this didn’t reach the level of statistical significance. There were no statistical differences in blood lactate, heart rate, or blood pressure between the different experimental conditions, but dark chocolate showed a trend for improving many of these measures.
Since the taste of dark chocolate is quite distinct, it was not possible to blind the participants to what they were eating. So some placebo effect could have played a role if participants expected the dark chocolate to have a benefit.
What it all means
This was only a very small study, but as far as proof of concept goes, it certainly gives a green light to more research in this area. When you put in context that all that is being used is a small amount of dark chocolate, then there appears little harm in athletes jumping the gun early and trying it for themselves.
