Dark Chocolate and Diabetes Type 2

Dark Chocolate and Diabetes Type 2
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Dark Chocolate and Diabetes Type 2
Diabetes Mellitus is a condition which develops whenever glucose/sugar level within the blood becomes abnormally high (Blak et al. 2012, p. 192). In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, or simply T2DM, a person’s body does not produce sufficient insulin to function in a proper manner, or the cells of the body do not react to insulin, and this is commonly referred to as insulin resistance (Holden et al. 2013, p. 846). In Britain, roughly 9 in 10 of all diabetic adults have T2DM, and there are about 750,000 persons in Britain with T2DM who are yet to be diagnosed with this disease (Young 2013, p. 8; Spero 2012, p. 6). T2DM mostly develops in people who are older than 40 years. The fast increase in the number of adults in Britain who develop T2DM is because of: an ageing population; increase in diets that are unhealthy; lack of exercise; as well as rising obesity levels (Gelhom et al. 2013, p. 806).
One way of managing and preventing T2DM is by consuming dark chocolate. A diabetic individual consuming chocolate is something which many people may actually find astonishing albeit within reason; chocolate should not be totally cut out from the diet of a diabetic (Bushak 2014, p. 11). Science has in recent times revealed the magic of cocoa as an effective antioxidant which may help in the prevention of T2DM. However, one has to keep in mind that the rule is not applicable to white or milk chocolate, but only to unprocessed, dark chocolate for the individual to derive the advantages of the antioxidants (Birchley 2014, p. 4; Turner 2014, p. 5). Although chocolate contains calories and fats, the health benefits of chocolates that are dark cannot be refuted, even to diabetic individuals (McCoy 2013, p. 2). Good cholesterol, also known as high density lipoprotein is enhanced and the overall cholesterol balance is improved whenever patients eat 45 grams of dark chocolate daily (Fitday 2014; Schneider 2014, p. 21). Dark chocolates have been found to appreciably improve markers of insulin sensitivity. They have also been found to reduce glucose levels and fasting insulin, in addition to glucose and insulin responses to the glucose tolerance test (Whitaker 2014, p. 14).
In essence, individuals suffering from T2DM are twice as likely to get heart disease, and given that a major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease is a low level of good cholesterol or high density lipoprotein, the discovery that dark chocolate has the potential of improving the level of good cholesterol is of major importance (Diabetes Digital Media 2014; Robin 2013, p. 17; Hagan 2010). In a study in which the researchers used mice, dark chocolates were provided to them. Given that the ingredients that were used in those dark chocolates were rich in antioxidants, they reduced the appetite of those mice which led to weight loss whilst reducing their glucose levels and blood pressure (Whiteman 2014, p. 5). The researchers concluded that chocolate which is dark can actually improve the flow of blood and lower a person’s blood pressure (Magee 2014, p. 6; Schneider 2014, p. 18).
Basically, chocolate that has a high content of cocoa has to be part of...