Eating Chocolate=Muscle Gain?FACT!

From the title of this blog, you might already be thinking....ridiculous. How can chocolate have an impact on muscle gain when all we previously know the assumption it will add inches to our waist with no added benefits, well wrong. The ingredient we will talk about today found in dark chocolate is epicatechin (if you haven't read the last 3 blogs it's strongly advised because we will talk about myostatin and follistatin today). Epicatechin is a potent flavonol that’s gained popularity for its ability to enhance lean mass gains and performance, but why is it so effective and how?In a 2015 study, it was revealed epicatechin was able to reduce myostatin in mice and increase grip strength. Unlike myostatin, which suppresses muscular growth, follistatin indirectly promotes muscle growth because it hinders myostatin signaling, and like we said, when concentrations of myostatin go down there is more room for muscular growth. But don't go to your kitchen and start eating just any chocolate because dark chocolate is the only chocolate the yields results and benefits of epicatechin. the 2015 study and many others have come to a consensus that If you want it to help you build lean muscle, you have to choose non alkalized cocoa products, minimum 70% cacao. It's still somewhat undetermined in humans how much dark chocolate is needed to be consumed to obtain the benefits of this catechin but studies are still being done to get better benchmarks. So next time you're choosing healthy fats to consume throughout the day, get some Dark Chocolate and attain its benefits.