Bitter dark chocolate appears to slow the aging process

The same chemical that makes dark chocolate taste bitter could help slow the ticking of your biological clock.

A new study from King’s College London has found that theobromine, a naturally occurring compound in cocoa, is linked to slower ageing at the molecular level. The findings suggest that people with higher levels of theobromine in their blood have DNA markers indicating a younger biological age than their chronological one.

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Researchers have long suspected that plant compounds like theobromine influence gene regulation, turning some genes on or off through chemical “bookmarks” on DNA. These epigenetic patterns change as we age. 

So, they examined blood samples from 509 women in the TwinsUK study and 1,160 individuals from the KORA cohort in Germany. Both datasets included information on metabolites — small molecules circulating in the blood — and detailed maps of DNA methylation, the tiny molecular tags that shape gene activity.

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They discovered that people with higher theobromine levels showed slower “epigenetic ageing,” as measured by two widely used tests (GrimAge and DNAmTL).

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