Table 6.

Studies on intestinal microbiota related to cocoa or chocolate use, included in this review.

Study	Study Design	Food Type	Main Outcomes
Wiese S. et al. 2015 [77]	Randomized, double-blind, cross-over human study	Cocoa	Comparative biokinetics and metabolism of pure monomeric, dimeric, and polymeric flavan-3-ols
Massot-Cladera M. et al. 2012 [78]	In vivo rat study	Cocoa	Cocoa intake affected the growth of certain species of gut microbiota in rats and changes in the toll-like receptor pattern and in the intestinal immune system
Tzounis X. et al. 2011 [79]	Randomized controlled double-blind crossover trial in human	Cocoa	Consumption of the high–cocoa flavanol drink modified the gut microflora, reducing the plasmatic triacylglycerol and C-reactive protein concentrations.
Urpi-Sarda M. et al. 2007 [82]	In vivo human and rat study	Cocoa	Sensitivity and recovery of epicatechin, procyanidins, and phenolic microbial metabolites after cocoa intake in human and rat urine
Jang S. et al. 2016 [83]	In vivo and in vitro pig study	Cocoa	Consumption of cocoa powder enhanced the abundance of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species and induced a reduction of tumor necrosis factor-α and toll-like receptor gene expression in intestinal tissues