Just in time for the holidays, some heart-warming news.
Flavanol-rich cocoa and green tea can protect your cardiovascular system against stress even after you eat fatty junk food, a new study finds.
“We know that when people are stressed, they tend to gravitate towards high-fat foods,” said lead study author Catarina Rendeiro, an assistant professor in nutritional sciences at the University of Birmingham in the UK. “We have previously shown that fatty food can impair the body’s vascular recovery from stress.”
Rendeiro’s team wanted to see if adding a high-flavanol food to the fatty meal would alleviate the effects of stress. Recent studies found that flavanols can lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes and dementia.
For the new research, a group of young, healthy adults each consumed two croissants with salted butter, 1 ½ slices of cheddar cheese and a high-flavanol or low-flavanol cocoa drink for breakfast.
The drink was prepared by dissolving 12 grams of cocoa powder into a cup of whole milk. The low-flavanol powder had 5.6 milligrams of flavanols per serving, while the high-flavanol cocoa powder had 695 mg of flavanols.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends adults consume 400 to 600 mg of flavanols daily.
“Flavanols are a type of compound that occur in different fruits, vegetables, tea and nuts including berries and unprocessed cocoa,” explained Rosalind Baynham, first author of the new paper. “Flavanols are known to have health benefits, particularly for regulating blood pressure and protecting cardiovascular health.”
The study participants were allowed to rest after their breakfast before embarking on a stressful math test.
As they answered as many questions as they could in eight minutes, the researchers measured their blood flow and brain oxygen levels and assessed their risk of heart disease.
“This stress task induced significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, similar to the stress you may encounter in daily life,” Baynham said.
The team found that consuming fatty foods with low-flavanol drinks while mentally stressed reduced circulatory system function, with the effects lasting up to 90 minutes after the stressful episode.
Blood flow was significantly better with the high-flavanol cocoa compared to the low-flavanol cocoa half an hour and 90 minutes after the stressor.
However, cocoa flavanols did not improve oxygen delivery to the brain or affect mood.
The findings were published Monday in the journal Food & Function.
“This research shows that drinking or eating a food high in flavanols can be used as a strategy to mitigate some of the impact of poorer food choices on the vascular system,” Rendeiro said. “This can help us make more informed decisions about what we eat and drink during stressful periods.”
Rendeiro recommends minimally processed cocoa powder — and if cocoa isn’t your cup of tea, you can try consuming green tea, black tea or berries.