Study: How Chocolate May Actually Help Combat Diabetes

A key to fending off diabetes may be found in your favorite chocolate bar, a new study finds, but that doesn’t mean you should go running to the candy store to stock up.

Chocolate seems like an unlikely ally in the fight against diabetes, yet researchers at Brigham Young University found that some compounds in chocolate may actually help the body release more insulin and respond to blood sugar better.

Diabetes is characterized by a lack of natural-forming insulin in the body and/or an improper response to sugar in the bloodstream. When the body doesn’t process sugar the way it’s supposed to, diabetes is the result. Beta cells in the body produce insulin to help process sugar. When these cells don’t produce enough or malfunction, problems arise. But the researchers found that when higher amounts of epicatechin monomers — compounds found most commonly in cocoa — are present, these beta cells work better.

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