Feeling stressed? Try a nice warm cup of cocoa, is the message from researchers at the University of Birmingham, who have been looking into how people can protect their health from both stress and the poor food choices we tend to make when we’re under pressure.
Humans often turn to high fat foods when they are stressed, science has shown, but while they may feel comforting, those choices can mean the negative effects of stress are in fact doubled up. Dr Catarina Rendeiro, Assistant Professor in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and lead author of the recent study explains: “We know that when people are stressed, they tend to gravitate towards high-fat foods. We have previously shown that fatty food can impair the body’s vascular recovery from stress.”
High fat foods, cocoa, and a high speed maths test
In the new research, published in Food and Function journal, the team wanted to find out if certain food or drink choices could have a more protective effect during difficult times. They turned to flavanols, which are an abundant compound in “fruits, vegetables, tea and nuts including berries and unprocessed cocoa.”
Rosalind Baynham, first author of the paper, described their experiment, which involved giving participants high-fat foods (HFM) and either a high or low-flavanol cocoa drink, and then stressing them out with a maths test: “We took a group of young healthy adults and gave them two butter croissants with 10 g salted butter, 1.5 slices of cheddar cheese and 250 ml whole milk as breakfast, and either a high-flavanol cocoa (HFC) or a low-flavanol cocoa (LFC) drink. Following a rest period, we asked the participants to complete a mental maths test which increased in speed for eight minutes, alerting them when they got an answer wrong.”
The scientists measured the participants’ blood flow, cardiovascular activity and function and brain oxygenation, during the rest period and the maths test. They found that the “stress task induced significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, similar to the stress you may encounter in daily life.”
Cocoa’s protective effect lasted an hour and a half
But the findings also show that the participants’ cocoa consumption helped to protect them from a stress and fatty-food related decline in cardiovascular function for up to 90 minutes after the stress was induced. However, brain oxygenation was not significantly improved and – interestingly for comfort seekers – neither was mood.
“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. This can help us make more informed decisions about what we eat and drink during stressful periods,” Rendeiro said.
