Happy Chocolate Day: Your favourite treat comes with surprising health benefits, reveals study

Recent research has shown that a specific ingredient found in chocolates might potentially help you in preserving a youthful state.

Research from King’s College London has found that the chemical theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, could have anti-ageing properties.

The study, published in Aging, compared levels of theobromine in people’s blood, with blood-based markers of biological ageing.

Biological age markers indicate how old your body seems based on its health and function, as opposed to the years you have lived. These markers are based on patterns of small ‘bookmarks’ on our DNA, called methylation, that change over the course of our lives, reads the  King’s College London website.

Across two European cohorts, which included 509 individuals from TwinsUK and 1,160 from KORA, the research found that those who had higher theobromine circulating in their blood had a biological age that was lower than their actual age.

"Our study finds links between a key component of dark chocolate and staying younger for longer. While we’re not saying that people should eat more dark chocolate, this research can help us understand how everyday foods may hold clues to healthier, longer lives," Professor Jordana Bell, senior author of the paper and a Professor in Epigenomics at King’s College London

The team also tested whether other metabolites in cocoa and coffee showed a similar link. However, they found that the effect seemed to be specific to theobromine.

The researchers used two tests to assess the biological age of people in the study. One looked at chemical changes in DNA to estimate how quickly someone is ageing. Another estimated the length of telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of your chromosomes. Shorter telomeres are associated with ageing and age-related diseases.

Plant compounds in our diet may affect how our bodies age by changing the way our genes are switched on or off. Some of these compounds, called alkaloids, can interact with the cellular machinery that controls gene activity and helps shape health and longevity.

Theobromine, an alkaloid most commonly known as being poisonous to dogs, has been linked to health benefits in humans, such as a lower risk of heart disease. However, it has otherwise not been intensely investigated.

Dr Ramy Saad, lead researcher at King’s College London, who is also a researcher at University College London and a doctor in Clinical Genetics said: “This is a very exciting finding, and the next important questions are what is behind this association and how can we explore the interactions between dietary metabolites and our epigenome further? This approach could lead us to important discoveries towards ageing, and beyond, in common and rare diseases.”

The research team, including Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos who is a Professor of Human Nutrition at King’s College London, are exploring avenues for future work to dissect these results.

One open question is whether the effect is unique to theobromine alone, or whether theobromine may interact with other compounds in dark chocolate, such as polyphenols, which are known to have beneficial effects on human health.

Dr Ricardo Costeira, a Postdoctoral Research Associate from King’s College London, said: “This study identifies another molecular mechanism through which naturally occurring compounds in cocoa may support health. While more research is needed, the findings from this study highlight the value of population-level analyses in aging and genetics.”

However, despite these promising findings the researchers are keen to stress that eating more dark chocolate isn’t automatically beneficial as it also contains sugar, fat and other compounds, and further research is needed to understand this association in more detail.