Specific Dietary Preferences Are Linked to Differing Gut Microbial Metabolic Activity in Response to Dark Chocolate Intake

Systems biology approaches are providing novel insights into the role of nutrition for the management of health and disease. In the present study, we investigated if dietary preference for dark chocolate in healthy subjects may lead to different metabolic response to daily chocolate consumption. Using NMR- and MS-based metabolic profiling of blood plasma and urine, we monitored the metabolic response of 10 participants stratified as chocolate desiring and eating regularly dark chocolate (CD) and 10 participants stratified as chocolate indifferent and eating rarely dark chocolate (CI) to a daily consumption of 50 g of dark chocolate as part of a standardized diet over a one week period. We demonstrated that preference for chocolate leads to different metabolic response to chocolate consumption. Daily intake of dark chocolate significantly increased HDL cholesterol by 6% and decreased polyunsaturated acyl ether phospholipids. Dark chocolate intake could also induce an improvement in the metabolism of long chain fatty acid, as noted by a compositional change in plasma fatty acyl carnitines. Moreover, a relationship between regular long-term dietary exposure to a small amount of dark chocolate, gut microbiota, and phenolics was highlighted, providing novel insights into biological processes associated with cocoa bioactives

Additional file 1: of Regional, socioeconomic, and dietary factors influencing B-vitamins in human milk of urban Chinese lactating women at different lactation stages

Table S1. Multivariate linear regression models considering riboflavin and biotin concentrations in human milk after the ln transformation as the dependent variables and the other variables studied as independent variables. After adjustment for potentially confounding factors, significantly higher biotin were observed in lactating women with dietary supplement intake when compared with the other women (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the concentrations of riboflavin in human milk from the lactating women with regular exercise were significantly higher than those women without (p < 0.05). (DOCX 16 kb