Epicatechin, procyanidins, cocoa, and appetite: a randomized controlled trial,

Abstract

Our nonalkalized cocoa mixture was associated with an acute decrease in food intake only after being supplemented with epicatechin. It is possible that epicatechin at a dose of >1.6 mg/kg body weight, alone or in concert with appropriate catalytic cocoa compounds, may be useful for helping people control their food intakes. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02408289.

Appetite-Suppressing and Satiety-Increasing Bioactive Phytochemicals: A Systematic Review

“…In multiple studies that recorded the outcomes over several hours on just one or two days, respectively, participants were instructed to refrain from exercise 24 to 48 h before test day [28,51,60,61,62,65,75] and to arrive after an overnight fast at the test center [52,57,62,69,70,76,86]. The bioactive phytochemical was mostly taken with a standardized meal, varying from a breakfast meal with approximately 1150 kJ (275 kcal) [73] to a breakfast buffet with a total amount of approximately 32,962 kJ (7878 kcal) [61].…”

“…Several methodological weaknesses were observed, including the inclusion of just one gender [15,28,49,50,57,60,67,71,75,76], single blinding [21,60,70], a high dropout rate (>20%) [21,28,55,58,62], a small group size (parallel-designed RCTs with just 20 participants) [68,87], and a short intervention period (parallel-designed RCTs less than 1 month) [68].…”

“…In addition, a language bias may have been present, since we restricted our search to English and German language publications. In three studies included in our systematic review, female gender was one of the exclusion criteria [57,60,75]. One important reason to exclude women is to avoid possible effects of the menstrual hormones on food-associated feelings [75].…”

“…In three studies included in our systematic review, female gender was one of the exclusion criteria [57,60,75]. One important reason to exclude women is to avoid possible effects of the menstrual hormones on food-associated feelings [75]. Janssens et al [21] solved this problem by conducting the test sessions four weeks apart and therefore ensuring that female participants were in the same phase of their menstrual cycle.…”

Consumption of dark chocolate attenuates subsequent food intake compared with milk and white chocolate in postmenopausal women

“…It should also be acknowledged that while an 319 independent measure of overall polyphenol concentration was obtained for each kind of 320 chocolate used in the present study, it is unclear whether the observed effects were associated 321 with specific individual polyphenols, or the combined mixture. For instance, there is evidence 322 15 to suggest that epicatechin acutely reduces ad libitum energy intake in healthy, young 323 volunteers (32). Future research is needed to identify the role of specific polyphenols, as well 324 as their interactions when present in various combinations.…”