Chocolate continues to rack up points in the Miracle Food category. The latest news: Italian researchers have announced that chocolate reverses oxidative stress damage in DNA.
Oxidative stress is what happens when cells can't repair themselves fast enough to keep up with the damage taking place in the cell. Various parts of cells can be damaged, including the DNA, which is the place where information is stored. Without good information from the DNA about how the cell is supposed to be, repairs can't be done correctly.
Much of human aging is thought to be the result of this phenomenon. Alzheimer's disease, heart failure, Parkinson's disease, and atherosclerosis are just a few of the diseases attributed to oxidative stress.
Healthy subjects with a balanced diet were fed 45 grams of dark chocolate, and two hours later showed a reversal of damage to the DNA in their blood cells. A control group fed white chocolate showed no such result. The results lasted for about 22 hours, so researchers think a daily dose would do the trick.
