The UB hosts a new edition of the International Congress on Chocolate and Cocoa in Medicine

Margarida Castell, Ramon Estruch and Maria Izquierdo are between the international experts that analyse latest and controversial findings about the effects of chocolate and cocoa consumption on human health.
Margarida Castell, Ramon Estruch and Maria Izquierdo are between the international experts that analyse latest and controversial findings about the effects of chocolate and cocoa consumption on human health.
Research
(22/09/2015)

Does a diet enriched with chocolate reduce cardiovascular risk? Does cocoa help to prevent the development of allergies? Does chocolate help to avoid loss memory? Does cocoa consumption benefit diabetes patients? To discuss the health benefits of the consumption of chocolate, cocoa and derivatives is the main objective of the 2nd International Congress on Chocolate and Cocoa in Medicine, which takes place at the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona (UB) on 25 and 26 September.

Margarida Castell, Ramon Estruch and Maria Izquierdo are between the international experts that analyse latest and controversial findings about the effects of chocolate and cocoa consumption on human health.
Margarida Castell, Ramon Estruch and Maria Izquierdo are between the international experts that analyse latest and controversial findings about the effects of chocolate and cocoa consumption on human health.
Research
22/09/2015

Does a diet enriched with chocolate reduce cardiovascular risk? Does cocoa help to prevent the development of allergies? Does chocolate help to avoid loss memory? Does cocoa consumption benefit diabetes patients? To discuss the health benefits of the consumption of chocolate, cocoa and derivatives is the main objective of the 2nd International Congress on Chocolate and Cocoa in Medicine, which takes place at the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona (UB) on 25 and 26 September.

The meeting will be distinguished by its multidisciplinarity and will represent a forum of discussion on the healthy features of cocoa and its derivatives in several fields, allowing those evidences available today, including any controversial aspects, to be debated, opening up new fields of investigation and interest.

The organizing committee is led by Margarida Castell, professor in the Department of Physiology of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the UB, and the scientific committee is headed by Gian Carlo Di Renzo, expert at the University of Perugia (Italy) and president of the International Society of Chocolate and Cocoa in Medicine (ISCHOM).

The forum will be opened by Dr Margarida Castell and Dr. Gian Carlo Di Renzo. The opening lecture "Hesitations of an extra-terrestrial scientist: what's chocolate?", pronounced by Claudi Mans, emeritus professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UB, makes way to congress' scientific sessions, which are focused on different fields of knowledge (metabolism, cancer prevention, allergies, immunology, etc.).

 

Health effects of the food of the Gods

The Mayans of South America are believed to be the first to harvest cocoa more than 2,500 years ago. For many ancestral cultures, the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao, or the food of the Gods), has been the symbol of abundance and relationship with Gods. This natural product, which focuses many international studies due to its beneficial health effects, contains flavanols, a high proportion of fibre and important quantities of theobromine, a methylxanthine similar to caffeine.

Professor Margarida Castell, member of the Institute for Research on Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA), explains that "one of the most important properties attributed to chocolate intake is its positive effect on the cardiovascular system". "The European Food Safety Authority (EPSA) has recognized the role that cocoa plays as blood vessel dilator and its consequent prevention of hypertension", she adds. On this matter, Professor Hans Verhagen, member of EFSA expert panel, pronounces the lecture "Status of health claims in Europe - focus on antioxidants and chocolate".

Castell, who also heads the Group on Autoimmunity and Tolerance of the UB, highlights that "at the preclinical level, studies on cocoa benefits have proved that a diet enriched with cocoa can modulate immune diseases like allergies”. “Moreover —she adds—, we are developing studies about cocoa impact on gut microbiota in which the prebiotic potential of chocolate has been proved".

It is important to mention other remarkable participating speakers like Joshua D. Lambert, professor at the Pennsylvania State University, who analyses the effect of chocolate intake on carbohydrate and fat metabolism and its possible benefits to obesity and metabolic syndrome on the speech "Modulation of obesity-related inflammation and fatty liver disease by cocoa: a potential role for the mitochondria".

The congress, which gathers more than 60 international experts, is supported by the UB, the Faculty of Pharmacy, the INSA, the Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus, the Museu de la Xocolata (Chocolate Museum), the Catalan Association of Food Science, and the firms dilia Foods (Cola-CaoÒ) and Simon Coll.

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