Search results for "Cacao"
showing 10 items of 25 documents
Exposure to a Highly Caloric Palatable Diet During Pregestational and Gestational Periods Affects Hypothalamic and Hippocampal Endocannabinoid Levels…
2016
Journal Article; Exposure to unbalanced diets during pre-gestational and gestational periods may result in long-term alterations in metabolism and behavior. The contribution of the endocannabinoid system to these long-term adaptive responses is unknown. In the present study, we investigated the impact of female rat exposure to a hypercaloric-hypoproteic palatable diet during pre-gestational, gestational and lactational periods on the development of male offspring. In addition, the hypothalamic and hippocampal endocannabinoid contents at birth and the behavioral performance in adulthood were investigated. Exposure to a palatable diet resulted in low weight offspring who exhibited low hypotha…
Use of Medaka Fish as Vertebrate Model to Study the Effect of Cocoa Polyphenols in the Resistance to Oxidative Stress and Life Span Extension.
2018
Oxidative stress (OS) can induce cell apoptosis and thus plays an important role in aging. Antioxidant foods protect tissues from OS and contribute to a healthier lifestyle. In this study, we described the used of medaka embryos (Oryzias latipes) to study the putative antioxidant capacity of dietary cocoa extract in vertebrates. A polyphenol-enriched cocoa extract regulated the expression of several genes implicated in OS, thereby protecting fish embryos from induced OS. The cocoa extract activated superoxide dismutase enzyme activity in embryos and adult fish tissues, suggesting a common mechanism for protection during embryonic development and adulthood. Furthermore, long-term feeding of …
Mineral essential elements for nutrition in different chocolate products
2016
In this work, the essential mineral nutritional elements in cocoa beans, in chocolates at different cocoa percentage (60,70,80 and 90%) and in milk chocolate are evaluated. Dark chocolates are confirmed as an excellent source of magnesium (252.2 mg/100 g) and iron (10.9 mg/100 g): in chocolate containing 90% cocoa, their content corresponds to, respectively, 67.0% and 80.3 of Nutrient Reference Values (NRV) in the European Union. The chocolate containing 90% cocoa is also a good source of zinc (3.5 mg/100 g), which is important for the immune system, and selenium (0.1 mg/100 g). Three main components suitable to explain the mineral concentrations are analyzed by factor analysis. The compone…
Metabolomic Changes after Coffee Consumption: New Paths on the Block
2021
Scope Several studies suggest that regular coffee consumption may help preventing chronic diseases, but the impact of daily intake and the contribution of coffee metabolites in disease prevention are still unclear. The present study aimed at evaluating whether and how different patterns of coffee intake (one cup of espresso coffee/day, three cups of espresso coffee/day, one cup of espresso coffee/day and two cocoa-based products containing coffee two times per day) might impact endogenous molecular pathways. Methods and results A three-arm, randomized, cross-over trial was performed in 21 healthy volunteers who consumed each treatment for one month. Urine samples were collected to perform u…
Cocoa polyphenols and their potential benefits for human health.
2012
This paper compiles the beneficial effects of cocoa polyphenols on human health, especially with regard to cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, metabolic disorders, and cancer prevention. Their antioxidant properties may be responsible for many of their pharmacological effects, including the inhibition of lipid peroxidation and the protection of LDL-cholesterol against oxidation, and increase resistance to oxidative stress. The phenolics from cocoa also modify the glycemic response and the lipid profile, decreasing platelet function and inflammation along with diastolic and systolic arterial pressures, which, taken together, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality. Cocoa polyph…
Use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans as model organisms to study the effect of cocoa polyphenols in the resistance to oxidative…
2011
Developing functional foods to improve the quality of life for elderly people has great economic and social impact. Searching for and validating ingredients with in vivo antioxidant effects is one of the key steps in developing this kind of food. Here we describe the combined use of simple biological models and transcriptomics to define the functional intracellular molecular targets of a polyphenol-enriched cocoa powder. Cocoa powder supplemented culture medium led to increased resistance to oxidative stress, in both the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, and, in the latter, lifespan was also increased. These effects are fully dependent on the po…
Towards a multi-agent model to prevent damage caused by cocoa mirids to cocoa pods
2019
Agriculture in general and cocoa farm in particular is one of the primary sources of income for several African countries. Although quite useful for the development of Africa, cocoa production is faced with several challenges like the diseases of cocoa trees. Mirid (Sahlbergella singularis) is the worst pest affecting cocoa production across west Africa causing 30% to 40% of damage on cocoa production. It is difficult to control the mirids’ population and its impact on the cacao production. Related works on mirids studied the mirids population as a macroscopic entity without considering local interactions of individual mirids. These models did not consider the behaviours and the environment…
Near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and neural networks for measuring nutritional parameters in chocolate samples.
2007
Abstract A rapid and non-destructive method has been developed for the characterization of chocolate samples based on diffuse reflectance near-infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). This methodology provides a potentially useful alternative to time-consuming chemical methods of analysis. To assess its utility, 36 chocolate samples purchased from the Spanish market were analyzed for the determination of the main nutritional parameters like carbohydrates, fat, proteins, energetic value and cocoa content. Direct triplicate measurements of each sample were carried out by DRIFTS. Cluster hierarchical analysis was used for selecting calibration and…
Mettre le chocolat en mots : terminologie de filière ou commerciale ?
2021
International audience; Ce chapitre interroge les terminologies mises en œuvre pour la description organoleptique et hédonique de la fève de cacao produite en Equateur et approchée à partir de la dégustation du produit fini qu’est le chocolat. Il s’arrête en particulier sur les modalités de construction de ces terminologies dans le contexte local spécifique qui repose tout à la fois sur une dichotomie entre la culture de la fève et sa transformation en chocolat et sur la situation diglossique du pays entre langues natives pour les producteurs et espagnol pour les exportateurs et aficionados à l’origine d’un discours largement prescriptif. Affichant une orientation éminemment méthodologique,…
Búsqueda de nuevos ingredientes bioactivos en obesidad para el diseño de nuevos alimentos funcionales, en base a la demanda del consumidor
2015
La innovación tecnológica en materia de salud ha sido un campo ampliamente estudiado y sigue siendo un foco de interés económico reiterado y prioritario. La alimentación es uno de los hábitos que más repercusión tienen en el estado de salud y en la prevención de determinadas enfermedades lo que influye cada vez más en los hábitos de compra de los consumidores (Niva M., 2007, Bech-Larsen T et al., 2007, Jones PJ et al., 2007, Van Kleef E et al., 2002). Un trastorno de la alimentación puede generar obesidad y con ello el desarrollo de múltiples complicaciones asociadas a la misma. En los últimos años, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (WHO., 2014 y 2015) ha venido alertando de la gran crisi…