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You have probably heard of countless supplements for exercise and athletic performance – juices, mixes, vitamins, powders – but have you heard of cocoa as a pre-exercise workout drink? Have you heard of the health benefits associated with consuming cocoa regularly? If not, I’ll be covering everything you need to know right here.
What are flavonols and flavonoids?
First come the flavonoids: a group of potent substances that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, and anti-carcinogenic qualities found in fruits, vegetables, grains, roots, stems, flowers, teas, and wine (1).
Then within the flavonoids come the flavonols: part of the family of flavonoids, and plentiful in moringa, cauliflower, broccoli, strawberries, and onions (2).
What is cocoa?
This history of cocoa comes from The Britannica.
Cocoa is a concentrated powder made from cocoa beans.It’s a tropical plant found in the equatorial regions of Central and South America.
It has been said that the Aztec, Toltec, and Mayan people drank this chocolate powder on important occasions, or used it in trading.
And if you’ve tried cocoa, you know it is quite bitter! (personally, I like that :D)
Some examples of cocoa flavonols include catechin, epicatechin, and gallocatechin (4).
Is there a difference from cacao?
Yes! Lake Champlain Chocolates tells us that cacao is the raw, unrefined bean. According to Forbes, cocoa specifically is the powder made from cacao beans.
Cocoa and exercise performance
As I was going through the research, I was actually surprised to find a fairly sizable amount of studies published on cocoa flavonols and exercise!
Exercise produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) (4, 5, 7), it’s just part of exercise. Certain defense systems in the body, including antioxidants, will go through their own cascade of events in order to maintain a balance between ROS production, and neutral/homeostasis. If ROS production exceeds the neutralising process, then alterations in body functions can occur, even on a DNA level, which is referred to as oxidative stress (4, 6).
Cocoa flavonols have been shown to reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress (3, 7) in doses between 200-900mg cocoa flavonols 2 hours before exercise.
Arterial Stiffness
After a 4 week dose of roughly 500mg cocoa flavanols, participants (men and women) had reduced arterial stiffness (8). Arterial stiffness results in a lack of elasticity over time, and is closely linked to risk of disease, like hypertension and stroke (9).
Insulin resistance, Blood pressure, and Fat oxidation
At doses of roughly 900mg of cocoa flavonols for 12 weeks (10), obese participants (men and women) reduced insulin resistance and reduced blood pressure independent of exercise. When exercise was counted for, results showed that fat oxidation (process of breaking down fat) increased and abdominal fat was reduced.
Perceived Muscle Soreness
Perceived muscle soreness was also noted in one study where males ingested cocoa flavonols (12) after exercise to be decreased.
Now, in one study done with trained male cyclists, everything I mentioned above in the research was NOT found (11). Could it be that the previous studies were mostly looking at the recreational or non-athletes, and a professionally trained athlete may not need the cocoa flavonols for optimal performance? Perhaps. More research is needed.
How does cocoa compare to other pre-workouts?
In this day and age of processing, there are a multitude of pre-workout beverages and ingestibles that are not terrible for you… then there are some that are not the greatest.
In untrained females, there were no statistically significant differences in exercise performance between a placebo and an energy drink containing taurine, caffeine, some B vitamins, and carbohydrate (16), such as heart rate, blood pressure, VO2 max, and lactate clearance.
Conversely…
Trained male and female cyclists who consumed Red Bull or a placebo before exercise DID have improved exercise performance (17).
Like all research, there are typically mixed results (as you can see from above). As a dietitian, I’m a fan of going the route that is the least processed. I would likely recommend cocoa flavonols over a typical energy drink since energy drinks are so highly processed, with a lot of lab-made substances added in, and cocoa can be consumed in a minimally processed way.
Energy drinks typically contain caffeine, which has been shown to be a vasoconstrictor (18) (though I will point out that even this has mixed study results!). Caffeine can also have withdrawal components as well. BUT, if you’ve ever had a cup of coffee, you know all too well about the perk-up effects caffeine has, which some individuals want in a pre-workout drink.
I mentioned arterial stiffness earlier seen in one of the research studies. Cocoa flavonols have been shown to release nitric oxide, a vasodilator, which is a marker for improvement in cardiovascular health (13). Exercise also enhances nitric oxide production (14). Vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) benefits circulation, delivering nutrients like antioxidants, oxygen, and other good stuff all around the body (15). With better blood flow and good-stuff delivery, the better one can perform and recover, in theory.
How much cocoa do I need to take in order to benefit?
Like we saw in some of studies, you would need at a minimum 200mg of cocoa flavonols, and up to 900mg for the maximum benefits. This doesn’t mean you should go out and buy the darkest chocolate you can find! The percentage of dark chocolate does not always mean it is the highest in flavonols. Flavonol concentration depends on the type of bean, how it was grown/harvested, and the type of processing it went through.
You can give Cocoavia a try for 500mg of cocoa flavonols.
Or Flavamix for 900mg of cocoa flavonols.
I’ve been drinking the Four Sigmatic Chill Cacao Mix lately, and am loving the taste! On their website, I can’t find any information on the cocoa flavonol content, so you may not be getting as concentrated a dose with this one.
References
- Panche, Archana N., Arvind D. Diwan, and Sadanandavalli R. Chandra. “Flavonoids: an overview.” Journal of nutritional science 5 (2016): e47.
- Decroix, Lieselot, et al. “Cocoa flavanol supplementation and exercise: a systematic review.” Sports Medicine 48 (2018): 867-892.
- Corr, Liam D., et al. “The effects of cocoa flavanols on indices of muscle recovery and exercise performance: a narrative review.” BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation 13.1 (2021): 1-16.
- Powers, Scott K., W. Bradley Nelson, and Matthew B. Hudson. “Exercise-induced oxidative stress in humans: cause and consequences.” Free Radical Biology and Medicine 51.5 (2011): 942-950.
- Betteridge, D. John. “What is oxidative stress?.” Metabolism 49.2 (2000): 3-8.
- Massaro, Marika, et al. “Effect of cocoa products and its polyphenolic constituents on exercise performance and exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation: a review of clinical trials.” Nutrients 11.7 (2019): 1471.
- Nishiwaki, Masato, Yuri Nakano, and Naoyuki Matsumoto. “Effects of regular high-cocoa chocolate intake on arterial stiffness and metabolic characteristics during exercise.” Nutrition 60 (2019): 53-58.
- Oh, Young S. “Arterial stiffness and hypertension.” Clinical hypertension 24.1 (2018): 17.
- Davison, Kade, et al. “Effect of cocoa flavanols and exercise on cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight and obese subjects.” International journal of obesity 32.8 (2008): 1289-1296.
- Decroix, Lieselot, et al. “Acute cocoa Flavanols intake has minimal effects on exercise-induced oxidative stress and nitric oxide production in healthy cyclists: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 14.1 (2017): 28.
- McBrier, Nicole M., et al. “Cocoa-based protein and carbohydrate drink decreases perceived soreness after exhaustive aerobic exercise: a pragmatic preliminary analysis.” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 24.8 (2010): 2203-2210.
- Magrone, Thea, Matteo Antonio Russo, and Emilio Jirillo. “Cocoa and dark chocolate polyphenols: from biology to clinical applications.” Frontiers in immunology (2017): 677.
- Oral, O. N. U. R. “Nitric oxide and its role in exercise physiology.” The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness 61.9 (2021): 1208-1211.
- Ramanlal, Riddhi, and Vikas Gupta. “Physiology, vasodilation.” (2020).
- Al-Fares, Maiadah N., et al. “Effect of energy drink intake before exercise on indices of physical performance in untrained females.” Saudi medical journal 36.5 (2015): 580.
- Ivy, John L., et al. “Improved cycling time-trial performance after ingestion of a caffeine energy drink.” International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism 19.1 (2009): 61-78.
- Merrill, Gary F., Denisa M. Costea, and Victoria A. Sharp. “Caffeine and Pressure Flow Autoregulation.” World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases 9.04 (2019): 253.
