If you eat fatty comfort foods during stressful times, a new study suggests that drinking cocoa may help you recover from the effects of stress more quickly. Stress takes a toll on the body, at least temporarily, and eating fatty foods before or during stress may make it take your body even longer to recover. Cocoa contains flavonoids that appear to protect blood vessel function against temporary stress-related impairments that can lead to high blood pressure and other problems. Drinking cocoa may help you recover more quickly from the physiological effects of stress, when we turn to high-fat comfort foods. This is according to a new study from the University of Birmingham in the UK. The authors of the study, published in the journal Food & Function, have previously shown that the consumption of fatty foods can negatively affect vascular function, reducing oxygen delivery to the cerebral cortex during stressful situations and impeding the body’s ability to recover afterward. Cocoa contains epicatechin, a flavanol that relaxes the endothelial cell layer of blood vessels, improving their function and combating the rise in blood pressure that is a common response to stress.
