Biological evaluation of the quality of dark chocolate protein in diets for rats

Chire-Fajardo G.C.; Sotelo-Méndez A.; Uribe-Salas A.A.; Ureña-Peralta M.O. · Nutricion Clinica y Dietetica Hospitalaria (2024) · DOI: 10.12873/442chire

Resumen

Introduction: Dark chocolates have high energy content due to the presence of carbohydrates and fats. Protein quality is essential for the cellular development and maintenance of human beings. The animal model (laboratory rat) provides data to continue with further studies. Aim: To know the protein quality of dark chocolate (CO-70) in bioassays with developing rats. Materials and methods: The food (dark chocolate CO-70) was processed, isoproteic and isocaloric diets were designed to feed developing laboratory rats. Weight and nitrogen content were collected from: the rat, the food consumed, the urine, the feces, the carcass (after sacrifice) at established times according to the type of bioassay. The respective calculations were carried out to know: apparent digestibility (AD), biological value (BV), nitrogen balance (NB), net protein ratio (NPR), net protein utilization (NPU) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). A T-student trial was carried out to determine significant differences between the diets. Results and discussions: Diets T1 (Chocolate 50 %) and T2 (Chocolate 10 %) presented different bioassay values (DA, BN, NPR), only the biological value (BV) was similar for both diets. For the T2 diet that increased weight, NPU and PER were reported with values of 58.71 and 2.13. Conclusions: The quality of dark chocolate (CO-70) protein was known, which serves as an ingredient in culinary preparations accompanied by protein of animal origin.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina