If I told you that cocoa products such as cocoa powder and dark chocolate can lower your blood pressure, improve your gut health, and speed your recovery from exercise, I’m guessing you might look at me as if I have two heads. However, this seems to be the case. Continuing from the previous blog in which we unpacked the effects of cocoa intake on brain health, today we’ll consider how cocoa affects other aspects of how we feel and function each day. Key takeaways Consuming cocoa flavanols improves the function of blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, especially in people...
Have you ever felt confused about whether caffeine is good or bad for you? I certainly have, and because of this, my caffeine intake has fluctuated between total abstinence and weeks of consuming over 600 mg caffeine each day (that’s a lot). When I was doing my PhD on the relationship between nutrition and sleep, I read study after study about caffeine, and this process helped me understand how to use caffeine to get more out of life. I’ve since seen many nutrition companies maligning caffeine and, honestly, I think most of this propaganda reflects the fact they don’t read scientific publications. I’m therefore keen to clear up what we actually know about this substance. Most important, I want to share how you...
