In what direction and by what action does chocolate affect cortisol levels?

[treehouse]

In what direction and by what action does chocolate affect cortisol levels?

 

[mishrashubham]

This one mainly talks about the effect on metabolism.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/pr900607v

Dark chocolate reduced the urinary excretion of the stress hormone cortisol and catecholamines and partially normalized stress-related differences in energy metabolism (glycine, citrate, trans-aconitate, proline, β-alanine) and gut microbial activities (hippurate and p-cresol sulfate).

And these two examine chocolate's effects on body with respect to exercise and nutrition. One uses pure dark chocolate and the other uses chocolate milk.

http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/20113173899.html;jsessionid=9F159C11819EF51A98B13447DBE14A4D

This study investigated the effects of regular consumption of dark chocolate (DC), rich in cocoa polyphenols, on plasma metabolites, hormones, and markers of oxidative stress after prolonged exhaustive exercise... Changes in circulating glucose, insulin, glucagon, Cortisol, and interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, and IL-1ra were unaffected by treatment.

http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss2/25/

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of chocolate milk (CM), an isocaloric carbohydrate only supplement (CHO), and placebo (PLA) on markers of endurance exercise recovery and subsequent time trial performance in trained cyclists...No significant treatment differences were found for myoglobin, CPK, cortisol, and 5 pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-&#;, IL-6, IL-10, IL-8, and IL-1Ra).

This is all I could find.

 

[treehouse]

Thank you. This is helpful.

The middle one says that cortisol levels remained 'unchanged' after cocoa ingestion. Exercise sessions cause a short-term increase in cortisol levels. I wonder if subjects' cortisol levels stopped dropping after being measured and then fed chocolate. That experiment's lack of a control group is also troubling.

Chocolate milk is a very watered-down source of chocolate.

Such experiments (if they wish to uncover the effects of what makes chocolate unique) should use cocoa powder so as not to dilute the data with the effects of chocolate bars' calories.

 

[Evo]

In what direction and by what action does chocolate affect cortisol levels?

Again, a title and a question with no information are not acceptable. You have been told to furnish enough information in your posts so that people do not have to do a search if they are not familiar with the subject. This is unnaceptable and people should not be responding before you make an acceptable post.

Don't do it again.

 

[mishrashubham]

Thank you. This is helpful.

You can use Pubmed or Google scholar to search scientific literature.

Chocolate milk is a very watered-down source of chocolate.

Such experiments (if they wish to uncover the effects of what makes chocolate unique) should use cocoa powder so as not to dilute the data with the effects of chocolate bars' calories.

Probably they wanted to study effects of chocolate milk itself and not pure chocolate.

This is unnaceptable and people should not be responding before you make an acceptable post.

My apologies if something's wrong. I myself was interested in the topic and so decided to search for it.

 

[Evo]

My apologies if something's wrong. I myself was interested in the topic and so decided to search for it.

You didn't do anything wrong, I'm just trying to get the OP to flesh out his posts and provide background information. This is a forum and not everyone may know to what the OP is referring. It is unfair to expect members to search for information which the OP should have provided. It's a good exercize to make a well thought out post, sometimes you can answer your own questions by doing so.

 

[Galteeth]

]Apparently dark chocolate reduces cortisol secretion. However, the study was financed by Nestle, so caveat emptor

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170829.php