Table 7.
Effects of consuming the soluble cocoa products were assessed using a symptom related to bowel habits questionnaire (Mean values and standard error of mean (SEM), n = 44)
| Flatulence | Bloating | Stool consistency | Ease of movement | Abdominal Pain | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Mean | SEM | Mean | SEM | Mean | SEM | Mean | SEM | Mean | SEM |
| Non-cocoa | 2.14a | 0.09 | 1.08 | 0.11 | 2.36 | 0.07 | 1.15 | 0.11 | 0.51 | 0.08 |
| Cocoa product A | 2.07a | 0.14 | 1.00 | 0.17 | 2.36 | 0.13 | 1.11 | 0.16 | 0.46 | 0.13 |
| Cocoa product B | 2.32a | 0.14 | 1.11 | 0.15 | 2.18 | 0.10 | 1.16 | 0.16 | 0.52 | 0.10 |
| p = 0.019 | N.S. | N.S. | N.S. | N.S. | ||||||
A 5-point scale was used to answer where 0 indicates no gas, no bloating, watery stool consistency, easy to pass and no pain, respectively; 5 indicates, severe, hard or difficult where appropriate. Effects were evaluated using generalized estimating equations with repeated measures (stage) and one fixed factor (cocoa product) were applied. Where there was a significant main effect, post hoc Bonferroni tests were used to analyse differences between means.