Acute consumption of flavan-3-ol-enriched dark chocolate affects human endogenous metabolism – a randomized controlled human interventional trial

Ostertag L. M., Philo M., Tapp H. S., Colquhoun I. J., Saha S., Duthie G. G., Kemsley E. K., de Roos B., Kroon P. A., Le Gall G.. (2017)

Journal of Proteome Research, 16, 2516-2526

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a primary cause of premature deaths worldwide. Plant-derived substances such as flavan-3-ols may beneficially affect atherosclerosis and impact on cardiovascular risk, but information on their bioavailability is limited. Objective: We performed a randomized controlled cross-over intervention trial to assess the acute effects of consumption of flavan-3-ol-enriched dark chocolate, compared with standard dark chocolate and white chocolate on the human metabolome. Design: We assessed the metabolome in urine and blood plasma samples collected before and at 2 h and 6 h after consumption of chocolates in 42 healthy volunteers using a non-targeted metabolomics approach. Results: Multivariate statistics could readily separate the postprandial time points and distinguish between the treatments. Most of the markers responsible for the multivariate discrimination between the chocolates were of dietary origin. Interestingly, subtle (fold change < 2) but significant level changes were also observed for a subset of endogenous metabolites indicating that flavan-3-ol-enriched and standard dark chocolates modulated host energy and nicotinate pathways. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that an acute chocolate intervention can significantly affect human metabolism. Mechanisms relating those changes to human health remain to be established.

Journal of Proteome Research, 16, 2516-2526

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