How many times have we been faced with the decision about whether to pass or to consume that bar of chocolate, confident that by doing so we have added not only virtue to our lives but also longevity by steering clear of unwanted fats and sugars.

Well for the coco enthusiast a paper out in the late August version of the British Medical Journal may add weight to your preliminary discussion …. it’s good for me.[1]

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.