Discover! >> Scientists Discover Key Chemical In Dark Chocolate That May Slow Down Ageing

There’s good news for people with a sweet tooth, as a new study has revealed that eating dark chocolate could help you live longer.

Cocoa – the primary ingredient in dark chocolate – contains theobromine, a key compound naturally produced by plants.

New research has revealed that this compound reduces your biological age – a measure of how much damage people’s cells have accumulated over time. Theobromine – which gives unsweetened chocolate its bitter taste – is only in significant amounts in chocolate with high cocoa content.

Even dark chocolate can have a high fat and sugar content, which means it should be eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet.

The study looked at health data of individuals from two cohorts – 509 from TwinsUK and 1,160 from Germany’s KORA.  These 1,669 individuals had an average age of 60 and were generally healthy, not selected for particular diseases. To assess biological age, the team focused on chemical changes in DNA and the length of telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes.

Like an aglet on a shoelace, telomeres stop the genetic material from unravelling and becoming damaged. Shorter telomeres are associated with ageing and age-related diseases.  According to the findings, those with higher levels of theobromine circulating in their blood had a biological age that was lower than their actual (‘chronical’) age.

After testing whether other metabolites in cocoa and coffee showed a similar link, they found the effect seemed to be specific to theobromine.

This important alkaloid, known as being poisonous to dogs, has been linked to health benefits in humans, such as a lower risk of heart disease.

It is already thought to lower blood pressure, promote fat metabolism, boost blood flow, enhance cognitive function and combat age-related cognitive decline.

he findings, published today in Aging, follows follows many other papers exploring the benefits of eating cocoa, the primary ingredient in chocolate.

A 2023 study at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston found cocoa may reduce cognitive decline in people at high risk of dementia.  In 2021, scientists at Columbia University found consumption of cocoa was linked to improved performance in list-learning tasks due to flavanols, compounds abundant in cocoa as well as berries, apples, tea, and leafy vegetable. And in 2019, Portuguese researchers said eating a few squares of dark chocolate every day lowers blood pressure in just one month.

However, there’s less evidence suggesting the health benefits of milk chocolate, which contains scant amounts of cocoa. Commercially available chocolates on the market are increasingly packed with milk, sugar and fats at the expense of cocoa mass. Some don’t contain enough cocoa to be permitted to be marketed as chocolate, which is why they instead have the label ‘chocolate flavoured’.

Generally, consumers are advised to enjoy chocolate as part of a balanced diet and active lifestyle, but opt for dark chocolate over milk chocolate to get the health benefits of theobromine and other compounds.