Professor Tim Spector's sweet is better than superfood fruits for inflammation and dementia

Tim Spector is an advocated of having dark chocolate - and it's got surprisingly large amounts of polyphenols in
-Credit: (Image: BBC)


Nutritional scientist Tim Spector has said a sweet treat has more beneficial chemicals in it than ‘superfoods’ blueberries and pomegranates. The professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and founder of the Zoe health app explained that chocolate could be seen as a real health food.

In a new video on the Zoe instagram page he said: “I forget exactly what chocolate’s made of, but it all comes from a plant that is fermented. This breaks down the plant in lots of chemicals. Those polyphenols, these defence chemicals. These are like rocket fuel for your gut microbes and that interaction between the fibre that’s still left and the chocolate and there is fibre in there.

“Plus, these polyphenols make microbes happy. They interact with it to produce other chemicals, which we believe are generally good for your body, for your immune system for your digestion, your mental health, et cetera, et cetera.”

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Polyphenols are a helpful substance which can assist in reducing inflammation in the body - and this can assist in avoiding dementia, arthritis and diabetes. Good quality chocolate also contains lots of fibre, which, given 90 per cent of us don’t get the minimum recommended 30g fibre, a day is vital. Eating 5g more fibre a day can reduce blood pressure by twice as much as reducing salt, Prof Spector has said.

He added: “So Chocolate: a health food? Did you know that the total polyphenol content of cocoa powder exceeds that of so called 'superfoods' açai, blueberries and pomegranate?

“Cocoa is a rich source of polyphenols such as flavanols which act as rocket fuel for your gut microbes, enhancing the growth of beneficial gut bacteria and reducing the number of pathogenic or bad bacteria. As well as the well documented polyphenols, there is actually a reasonable amount of fibre in chocolate. around 7–12g/100g in dark and 3g/100g in milk. These are significant levels when you consider one portion (approx. 3 squares) of 70% dark chocolate has ~4g fibre, double the fibre than of a slice of wholegrain bread.”

He added that some chocolate bars will contain emulsifiers and advised people to check the label and choose the highest percentage you can enjoy to minimise the sugar content and maximise the polyphenol and fibre content.