A chemical found in dark chocolate could slow the rate of biological aging, according to research from King's College London, published in the journal Aging.
Specifically, it was found that theobromine, a common plant compound derived from cocoa, may have anti-aging properties.
The researchers compared theobromine levels in the blood of the participants with markers of biological aging detected in the blood. Participants were drawn from two European study cohorts, 509 individuals from the TwinsUK cohort and 1,160 from the KORA study. The study found that those with higher levels of theobromine in their blood had a biological age that was lower than their actual age.
The team also looked at whether other metabolites in cocoa and coffee showed a similar connection, but found that the result only seemed to hold for theobromine.
However, despite the encouraging findings, the researchers stress that increased consumption of dark chocolate is not automatically beneficial, as it also contains sugar, fat and other substances, and further research is needed to understand this association in more depth.
