Eating dark chocolate enhances your athletic performance just to the degree that exercise, revealed a recent study. When small doses of chocolate were eaten together with regular workout then performance was improved by fifty percent. Dark chocolate contains plant compound known as epicatechin that seems to trigger muscle growth.
The researchers from Wayne State University in Detroit carried out a study on middle-aged mice. They divided them in three clusters. First group was provided a kind of epicatechin from cocoa two times a day for fifteen days. Second group was given epicatechin and thirty minute on treadmill daily. Third group did workout without taking epicatechin.
The study showed that the compound made mice to produce more mitochondria, which is the tiny batteries that gives power to the cells in human body and improved the number of capillaries, which carry oxygen to the muscles. This provided mice with more energy when put on the treadmill.
Mice those had just been fed epicatechin extract performed similar to those who had been training regularly. The extract seems to stimulate their muscle growth in a similar manner as to vigorous workout such as jogging. According to lead author Dr Moh Malek, aerobic exercise, such as running or cycling, is known to increase the number of mitochondria in muscle cells.
Their study has shown that epicatechin appears to cause the same reaction, particularly in the heart and skeletal muscles. They wish the similar effect may apply in humans and that constituents in dark chocolate could be used as basic treatments for age-related muscle wastage, added Dr Malek. The study was published in the Journal of Physiology.
source ; http://news.google.co.in