Chocola en diabetes

Chocolate and Diabetes

Just as chocolate can help support cardiovascular health, it also promises to help in an area closely linked to cardio trouble—diabetes. There has been an explosion of diagnoses of type-2 diabetes in recent years, and it is well known that the majority of diabetes-related deaths result from cardiovascular conditions such as atherosclerosis, infarction, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
But diabetes’ effects go beyond the heart. Micro blood vessel damage is caused by elevated blood sugar (an oxidant) linking with blood vessel proteins (collagen), which ultimately causes scarring and blood vessel blockage. This damage is what causes neuropathy (pain in the nerves) and edema (water in the tissues) in extremities, which can lead to ulcerations and amputations. It also causes kidney damage (nephropathy) and even blindness (retinopathy).
The good news is that there is overwhelming support for chocolate’s diabetic-friendly benefits. In fact, a recent review of 42 studies found that the majority showed that subjects enjoyed distinct improvement in glucose and insulin balance when consuming some sort of antioxidant-rich cocoa food or beverage. The researchers stated, “We found consistent benefits of chocolate or cocoa on promising effects on insulin and insulin resistance . . .”