Eating chocolate could help people with fatty liver disease, study of cocoa powder’s benefits suggests

One in four people have fatty liver disease. Eating foods high in cocoa powder, such as chocolate, could reduce the disease’s severity, a study shows

The study of mice fed a high-fat diet which had the disease showed giving them cocoa powder significantly reduced its severity

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A study in which cocoa powder was added to the diet of mice with fatty liver disease showed it reduced the severity of their condition. Drinking hot chocolate or eating a chocolate bar could have a similar effect on humans. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 8:15pm, 24 May 2021Updated: 6:31pm, 25 May 2021

Who doesn’t like chocolate? Very few of us. And a new study brings good news for those of us who like eating it – with a small caveat: you may need to learn to enjoy it differently.

A study led by Professor Joshua Lambert at Penn State University in the United States has found that feeding cocoa powder to high-fat-fed mice with liver disease significantly reduced the severity of their condition.

That alcohol is bad for our livers is well known. But few people understand that livers can become damaged even in those who abstain from drinking. Fatty liver disease is nicknamed “the most common disease you’ve never heard of”: one in four people have it, more than sufferers of diabetes and arthritis combined.

Dr Paul Ng, a Hong Kong specialist in gastroenterology and hepatology, says the condition is “linked to affluence; an abnormal accumulation of fat in liver cells because of excessive nutrition being stored inside the body”. In Hong Kong, 27 per cent of the population is estimated to be living with the condition, a figure that is on the rise.

Joshua Lambert is a professor at Penn State University in the US.

Mild cases are usually harmless, says Ng. But more serious cases can kill, “typically from a heart attack or stroke, as these patients run higher risks of having coronary heart disease”, he says. Happily, the condition is curable, Ng says – “not by a doctor but by the patients themselves”.