Copyright VICE
Sitting is the grand villain of the modern day. It’s the arch nemesis whose enchanting siren song must be ignored unless we want to have an early run-in with the ultimate rest that is death. So, we stand at our desks, watch TV on our walking pads, and try to get in as many steps as we can to fend off the evils of taking a load off. It’s so bad that we call it the “new smoking,” except that nobody feels proud of quitting sitting. Videos by VICE Unfortunately, the health data backs up the fear. Mainline Cocoa to Fight the Effects of Sitting All the Time A team of researchers found that there might be a way to reverse the effects of sitting, and it comes in the form of another indulgence that could kill you: cocoa. Specifically, researchers from the University of Birmingham England say that the flavanols in cocoa can counteract the effects of too much sitting. This is the same compound that gives dark chocolate and red wine their reputation for being somewhat healthy, despite the sugar and alcohol being unhealthy. The researchers recruited 40 healthy guys, aged 18 to 45, and split them into “high-fit” and “low-fit” groups. Half of each group downed a high-flavanol cocoa drink with 695 mg of flavanols, while the others sipped a low-flavanol placebo brew containing only 5.6 mg. Then, all the participants took part in the harshest, most grueling, perhaps the most cruel part of the entire experiment: they sat still for two hours. The researchers measured blood vessel function in their arms and legs using a test called brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD), which assesses how well your arteries can expand and contract to keep blood moving. They found that even the gym rats who drank the low-flavanol cocoa saw a drop in vascular function, blood flow, and muscle oxygenation. But those who drank the flavanol-rich cocoa didn’t decline at all. Their arteries were just fine after two hours of sitting. Being physically fit couldn’t save their blood vessels from the horrors of sitting comfortably in a chair for two hours, but several hundred milligrams of a cocoa drink did. Before you start scarfing down dark chocolate bars in the name of good health, the researchers note that you can also get flavanols from foods like apples, berries, nuts, tea, wine, and kale. There’s a much broader and healthier variety of foods out there than a sugary cup of hot cocoa. Pair any of those with a little more standing, and you might just be able to dodge sitting’s scythe.
