Cocoa and dark chocolate supplementation reduced body weight, body mass index and waist circumference. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Does cocoa/dark chocolate supplementation have favorable effect on body weight, body mass index and waist circumference? A systematic review, meta-analysis and dose-response of randomized clinical trials.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2018 Mar 19:0. Epub 2018 Mar 19. PMID: 29553824
Hamed Kord-Varkaneh
BACKGROUND: Cocoa and dark chocolate (DC) have been reported to be effective for health promotion; however the exact effect of cocoa/DC on anthropometric measures have not been yet defined.
METHODS: A comprehensive search to identify randomized clinical trials(RCT)s investigating the impact of cocoa/DC on body weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference(WC) was performed up to December 2017. A meta-analysis of eligible studies was performed using random effects model to estimate pooled effect size. Fractional polynominal modeling was used to explore dose-response relationships for cocoa/DC supplementation.
RESULTS: A total of 35 RCTs investigated the effects of cocoa/DC on weight, BMI and WC were included. Meta-analysis did not suggest any significant effect of cocoa/DC supplementation on body weight (-0.108 kg,95% CI -0.262, 0.046 P = 0.168), BMI (-0.014 kg/m95% CI -0.105, 0.077, P: 0.759,) and WC (0.025 cm95% CI -0.083, 0.129, P = 0.640). Subgroup analysis revealed that that weight and BMI were reduced with cocoa/DC supplementation≥30g chocolate per day in trials between 4-8 weeks. Chocolate consumption resulted in WC reduction in non-linear fashion (r = 0.042, P-nonlinearity = 0.008).
CONCLUSION: Cocoa/DC supplementation reduced body weight, BMI and WC. Dose and duration were important determinates for favorable effects on anthropometric measures.