The growing interest among the scientists to identify those foods capable of preventing diseases has now branded cocoa as a “superfood.” It has been recognized as an excellent source of phytochemical compounds, which offer potential health benefits.

Led by scientists from the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN; Madrid, Spain) and published in the December 2011 issue of the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research journal, the new study supports this hypothesis and maintains the claim that cacao consumption helps to prevent intestinal problems associated oxidative stress, such as the onset of chemically induced colon carcinogenesis.

“Being exposed to different poisons in the diet like toxins, mutagens, and procarcinogens, the intestinal mucus is very susceptible to pathologies,” explained Dr. María Ángeles Martín Arribas, lead author of the study and researcher at ICTAN. She added that, “foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seems to play an important role in protecting against disease.”

The study on live rats has validated, for the first time, the potential protection effect that flavonoids in cocoa have against colon cancer onset. For eight weeks, the scientists of the study fed the rats with a cocoa-rich (12%) diet and carcinogenesis was induced.

Dr. Martín Arribas reported that, “four weeks after being administered with the chemical compound azoxymethane [AOM], intestinal mucus from premalignant neoplastic lesions appeared. These lesions are called ‘aberrant crypt foci’ and are considered to be good markers of colon cancer pathogenesis.”

The study’s findings revealed that the rats fed a cocoa-rich diet had a considerably reduced number of aberrant crypt foci in the colon induced by the carcinogen. Similarly, this sample saw an improvement in their endogenous antioxidant defenses and a decrease in the markers of oxidative damage induced by the toxic compound in this cell.

The researchers concluded that the protection effect of cocoa can block cell-signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, and therefore, subsequent neoplasty and tumor formation. Lastly, the animals fed with the cocoa-rich diet showed an increase in apoptosis as a chemoprevention process against the development of the carcinogenesis.

Although more research is required to determine what bioactive compounds in cocoa are responsible for such effects, the authors concluded that a cocoa-rich diet seems capable of reducing induced oxidative stress. It could also have protection properties in the initial stages of colon cancer as it reduces premalignant neoplastic lesion formation.

Cocoa is one of the chief ingredients in chocolate. It is one of the richest foods in phenolic compounds, mainly in flavonoids such as procyanidins, catechins, and epicatechins, which have numerous beneficial biologic activities in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and cancer (mainly colorectal cancer).

In fact, compared to other foods with high flavonoid content, cocoa has a high level of procyanidins with limited bioavailability. These flavonoids are therefore found in their highest concentrations in the intestine where they neutralize many oxidants.