Cocoa and chocolate are sources of vitamin D2. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Cocoa and chocolate are sources of vitamin D.
Food Chem. 2018 Dec 15 ;269:318-320. Epub 2018 Jun 20. PMID: 30100440
Julia Kühn
Cocoa beans are susceptible to fungal contamination and often contain substantial amounts of ergosterol, the precursor to vitamin D. We hypothesized that sun-drying the fermented cocoa beans might lead to the conversion of ergosterol to vitamin D. We quantified vitamin D in cocoa and cocoa-based foods by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Here, we show that cocoa beans from different growing regions contain vitamin D. Particularly high vitamin Dcontent was found in cocoa powder and butter. Among the chocolates, dark chocolate had the highest vitamin Dcontent (ranging from 1.90 to 5.48 µg/100 g), white chocolate had the lowest vitamin Dcontent (ranging from 0.19 to 1.91 µg/100 g), and chocolate nut spreads had a comparatively low vitamin Dcontent, with an average of 0.15 µg/100 g. Thus, cocoa and chocolate are clearly a dietary source of vitamin D, therefore, it is necessary to update food composition databases.