Effects of dark chocolate in a population of Normal Weight Obese women: a pilot study

BACKGROUND : Normal weight obese (NWO) syndrome is defined as an exces - sive body fat associated with a normal body mass index and characterized by a higher risk for car - diovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent stud - ies have demonstrated that dark chocolate (DC) has beneficial effects in the prevention of cardio - vascular diseases (CVD) due to its anti-inflamma - toryandantioxidantproperties. AIM: The aim of the present study was to in - vestigate the effects of DC consumption on lipid profile, inflammatory markers, biochemical para - meters, and blood pressure, in NWO women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 15 women af - fected by NWO syndrome, aged 20-40 years, were included in the study. After a DC-free washout period, subjects received DC (100 g/die) containing 70% cocoa for 7-days. Body composition by Dual energy-X-ray absorptiom - etry (DXA) was performed at baseline. Blood pressure, anthropometric measurements, bio - chemical parameters and plasma levels of some cytokines were measured before and af - ter DC consump tion. RESULTS : After DC consumption, we observed a significant increase in the HDL cholesterol lev - el (Delta% = +10.41±13,53; p ≤ 0.05), a significant decrease of total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ra - tio (Delta %= -11.45±7.03; p ≤ 0.05), LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio (Delta % = -11.70±8.91; p ≤ 0.05), and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL- 1Ra) (Delta % = -32.99±3.84; p ≤ 0.05). In addi - tion, a reduction in abdomen circumference was observed. We also found a positive correlation between changes in atherogenic indices, and IL- 1Ra, abdomen reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that regular consumption of DC could be useful in maintaining a good atherogenic profile, due to the favourable effects on HDL cholesterol, lipoprotein ratios and inflammation markers.