Table 4.

Summary of most recent effects of cocoa and cocoa flavanols on anti-inflammatory markers in human cohorts.

Subjects	Experimental Design	Intervention	Duration	Main Outcomes a	Reference
Healthy adults	Randomized, three-phase crossover	High-EC apple pure (25–100 mg)	4 weeks	↑ NO metabolite concentration ↓ P-selectin expression	[72]
Moderately hypercholesterolaemic	Randomised, controlled, cross-over, free-living	Fiber-rich cocoa soluble (416 mg flavanols/day)	4 weeks	↓ IL-1β, IL-10, = VCAM1	[73]
Moderately hypercholesterolaemic	Randomised, controlled, cross-over, free-living	Flavanol-rich cocoa powder (45 mg flavanols/Kg.b.w.)	4 weeks	↓ IL-10, = VCAM1	[76]
Moderately hypercholesterolaemic	Randomised, controlled, cross-over, free-living	Fiber-rich cocoa soluble (44 mg flavanols and 10 g dietary fiber/day)	4 weeks	↓ IL-1β	[77]
Healthy (pre)hypertensive	Randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled crossover trial	EC (100 mg/day)	4 weeks	↓ sE-selectin, = IL-1β	[79]
Overweight men	Randomized doubleblind Crossover	High-flavanol chocolate (70 g/day)	4 weeks	↓ sICAM1 and sICAM3	[86]

^a The arrow indicates an increase (↑) or decrease (↓). IL: interleukin; VCAM: vascular cell adhesion molecule; ICAM: intercellular cell adhesion molecule.