Love chocolate? Want to find out more about how your body digests it? This article gets into the current state of research on chocolate and your body's digestive system -- turn out some microbial helpers may make all the difference.
Chocolate, Health, and the Bacteria of the Intestines
1.) I think the hypothesis is, does chocolate actually help the heart?
ReplyDelete2.) Here is one piece of evidence. “The flavanol findings really puzzled chemists. Some noted that cocoa doesn’t appear to have enough of the beneficial compounds to help the heart. Many cocoa chemicals glom together. This creates super-structures, known as polymers. And polymers make up about 90 percent of the chemicals in cocoa powder. These biggies can’t help if they don’t get into the blood. But they are too large to pass out of the gut’s wall and into the bloodstream. Many scientists therefore suspected that cocoa chemicals must just stay in the digestive tract until they got excreted as waste.” I think this shows that the scientists are rethinking about if chocolate actually helps the heart. I also think that now that they found this out the scientists are stumped. They are probably wondering what went wrong? I think that this relates to the hypothesis because now they are going to probably go back and do more research on this chocolate to see if it helps the hear or not.
3.) I think that the uncertainty is that they don’t know if chocolate helps the heart. I think that the scientist will have to start all over on this experiment. I think this because they said that chocolate helps the heart but now after more testing’s they are saying that now it doesn’t help the heart. So I think if they start the experiment all over they can get the right information.
4.) I think that it is a little bit of both. I think it is weak because it still needs many tests to prove if the chocolate helps you heart or not. I also think it is strong because the data could help make this statement good or bad. If the data goes good the chocolate will help the heart but if it goes bad it will turn out to not help the heart and then my parents won’t buy chocolate as often.
2.) One piece of evidence is that they tested their prototype by experimenting with cocoa powder to see how they break down the powder when you digest it.
DeleteI disagree with the hypothesis a little bit. The thing they were looking for was not just the fact that chocolate could help your heart, but is also healthy in general. I base this on the fact that it also said that it was recorded to also be used for kidney problems and fevers. Another thing I disagree with is the fact where you said that doing the experiment over again will help get better results. If they do the exact same experiments, then aren't they going to get the same results?If they do, then no uncertainty is being cleared up.
DeleteHello Matt
ReplyDeleteGood start, but I wonder if you could clarify the evidence a little? Were scientists really trying to see if the chocolate helps the heart, or trying to find out if the helpful chemicals in chocolate can get into the bloodstream, and how bacteria might help with this?
In this article, scientists are testing if chocolate’s helpful chemicals can go into a person’s bloodstream. Scientists have discovered many great, healthy facts about chocolate in the human body. For example, recently, scientists have discovered that some chemicals in chocolate can fight skin cancer. A research team led by food scientist, John Finley and college student, Maria Moore did an experiment with cocoa powder to see if chocolate is good for the human body, and if it’s nutrients can get into the bloodstream. The research team developed an artificial digestive tract using test tubes for different reactions. They went through many stages of the experiment; However, the research team lacked health-promoting chemicals formed during fermentation that would go through the gut wall, and into the blood. Finley’s team plan to do a small trial with people digesting cocoa powder. Participants would put 50 grams of cocoa powder in dark hot chocolate, and collect blood and stool samples to check for proteins that might signal a drop in inflammation. This would allow the chemicals in the human body to go into the blood. I think this experiment will work for the trial involving participants because Finley’s team will. Also, I think the research team should test the trial with participants with different blood types to see if there’s a difference of the cocoa powder’s nutrients in each blood type.
ReplyDeleteHey Carly! I kind of disagree with you on the hypothesis. You said that they were testing if the chocolates' helpful chemicals can go into a person's bloodstream, but the scientists were actually trying to find a way for the helpful chemicals to get into the bloodstream. On the other hand, I agree that the experiment would work in a trial on people since the experiment produced a helpful amount of data.
Delete1. the main function of the prototype for a device they are making is to simulate the intestines and how your organs break down certain things you eat.
ReplyDelete2. they tested their prototype by experimenting with dark chocolate cocoa powder and stomach enzymes to see how they break down the powder during digestion.
3. they could try testing a piece of dark chocolate that someone might eat instead of just raw cocoa powder and look at the way that is digested.
4. I think this prototype will work and will be a beneficial resource to further knowledge about the way the digestive system breaks down some foods. I think this because in the article the researchers said, "Finley’s team hopes to get around this problem. It’s already planning to do a small trial in people" I think this shows how the researchers are progressing in their studies and are hoping to be able to continue to expand on their hypothesis.
Hi Lauren! I agree with you. I think that the test will definitely be good evidence as to how and why cocoa is actually good for you. Also, I agree with you on the fact that their next trial will definetly improve their final conclusions, but also think that others should test the t
DeleteIn this article, scientists are testing and trying to find a way for the helpful bacteria to go into a person’s bloodstream. But before the testing, many scientists have found many extremely great things that chocolate or cocoa could do to a person. For example, some scientists claim that cocoa can fight skin cancer, while others believe that it can protect our teeth. In the article, the John Finley and Maria Moore tested this experiment by placing the cocoa powder with stomach enzymes from their stool to break down the cocoa during digestion. However, in the reading, Finley and Moore only tested on raw cocoa powder and stomach enzymes but they didn’t experiment it on processed cocoa (the ones we eat or drink for hot chocolate). I feel like the experiment might work since they tested this with people who have different blood types to see if there is any difference. I also feel like Finley and Moore are trying to expand on this idea and their hypothesis because in the section, “Fighting Inflammation” it states that they only tested on a small group of people, which makes me think that they might test it on a larger group of people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I completely agree with you hypothesis that scientists are testing and trying to find out a way for the helpful bacteria to go into a person's bloodstream. When you said, "I feel like the experiment might work since they tested this with people who have different blood types to see if there is any difference. I also feel like Finley and Moore are trying to expand on this idea and their hypothesis because in the section" I agree with that too. I also think that you could have gone into a little more detail when you were talking about Finley and Moore. I thought it was really good though.
Delete1. New research has discovered that the special treat of a chocolate bar actually has lots of healthy bacteria and nutrients that are from cocoa beans and that could help prevent many diseases and it could help our digestion. The only challenging part about this is getting the cocoa into your blood stream because normal dark chocolate gloms together and stops the healthy nutrients and bacteria from getting through.
ReplyDelete2. They tested their theory by adding cocoa powder with stomach enzymes from the pancreas to see how the powder breaks down during digestion, in order to do combine them they had to do multiple tests to make sure that this theory was accurate and they had to see how they reacted to each other.
3. I believe the big question is how it the healthy enzymes will react in a real human and in order to do so you must experiment on actual people. Although scientists have started this large experiment they have yet to find the results and some people that are being experimented on are taking a pill but other people are actually mixing cocoa powder into their everyday food.
4. I think this theory is going to work and I hope it works because I would love to add cocoa powder into my everyday diet because it tastes good and it may be healthy for you too. Although this seems like a perfect idea no one will really know if cocoa powder does help your digestive track until the results of the human tested experiment come in so I don't think scientists should say that cocoa powder is healthy for you but they should say that it might be.
Hi Jack!
DeleteI agree with most of this, but would have to disagree with one of the factual elements of your hypotheses. This was all correct, except that the chocolate bars that we eat have processed and sweetened cocoa, which has not been proved to have the same qualities. The other parts were quite accurate, with back-up information that was supportive of the hypotheses.
1. In this article it shows that dark chocolate can actually good for us but usually you would think that is is not i actually is because there has been a new discovery that coco beans can help prevent many diseases and it could also help our digestion.
ReplyDelete2.“The flavanol findings really puzzled chemists. Some noted that cocoa doesn’t appear to have enough of the beneficial compounds to help the heart. Many cocoa chemicals glom together. This creates super-structures, known as polymers. And polymers make up about 90 percent of the chemicals in cocoa powder. These biggies can’t help if they don’t get into the blood. But they are too large to pass out of the gut’s wall and into the bloodstream. Many scientists therefore suspected that cocoa chemicals must just stay in the digestive tract until they got excreted as waste.” This evidence shows that scientist found out that adding cocoa powder with stomach enzymes to see how it breaks down during digestion.
3.well they could try testing a piece of dark chocolate that someone would eat instead of just eating the cocoa powder and see the way that is digested.
4. I think that this might work but i also don't recommend eating a lot of chocolate because chocolate can also have some bad sides that could make you unhealthy but I do think that the cocoa powder can definitely help you with digestion so thats why people are adding it in all of there everyday food.
hi johnny good job
DeleteThe main hypothesis of the scientists featured in this article was that the bacteria in a person’s stomach breaks down chocolate into healthy, beneficial compounds. These scientists created an artificial digestive tract out of test tubes in which to conduct their experiment. First, they placed the cocoa powder used to make dark chocolate in the “stomach/small intestine” with stomach and pancreatic enzymes. After the two interacted with each other, they moved the remaining substance into the “small intestine” which also contained the bacteria responsible for fermentation. They allowed the remaining cocoa to ferment, and when removed it was discovered that it had been changed into compounds that had been proven to prevent the inflammation of cardiovascular cells. Now, with this information, they plan conduct a test on people in which participants would eat about 50g of cocoa powder a day. Later, blood and stool samples would be collected to be tested for proteins that would indicate a decrease in inflammation. The one flaw with the original test was the fact that it did not take into account the fact that after passing through one’s stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, the healthy compounds would pass through the gut wall and sometimes are changed during this process. If the test that is being planned to take place on people is eventually conducted, I think that that will provide sufficient evidence for or against this theory. Either way, though, others will have to test this hypothesis as well to completely prove its correctness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think that this is a good experiment to help determine if dark chocolate cocoa powder could be a beneficial thing to work into your diet. However, I also agree with the fact that they need to take into consideration that the compounds could change when passed through the stomach wall. I wonder if this problem could be tested with the artificial prototype.
Delete1. I believe that their hypothesis for their experiment was “Do microorganisms make chocolate good for you?”.
ReplyDelete2. The scientists performed an experiment in which they had a model of the human digestive tract and sent cocoa powder through it. They had all the similar enzymes that the food would go through that were in the large and small intestines, as well as the acids released by the liver and pancreas. They even got the bacteria responsible for fermentation in the large intestines. They found results that decrease inflammation.
3. Some things that they aren’t so sure about still are the variables that come into play when the chocolate still has the fat and sugar in it. They don’t know what will happen because when they did the experiment they used cocoa powder rather than real dark chocolate.
4. I think that this test had sufficient data to prove that it reduces inflammation, but a few more trials and tests would greatly strengthen the conclusion that they got.
Hello Teddy, i think your comment was very good. The only thing you need to work on is to add more text evidence. But overall you comment was great as long as you do a few tweaking to it.
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