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The Effect of Cocoa upon Calcium Utilization and Requirements, Nitrogen Retention and Fecal Composition of Women¹

Department of Home Economics and Division of Animal Nutrition, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana

The effect of the ingestion of a moderate-cost American process cocoa on calcium utilization was studied in 8 college women, 18 to 22 years of age. This involved estimation of calcium balances for 208 consecutive days, except for 15 days intervening for the Christmas holidays. Five levels of cocoa (5.6, 21.0, 28.5, 34.8 and 56.2 gm) were tested, 4 in diets containing milk as the major source of calcium and the other (21.0 gm) in a milk-free diet. Because of the bulky nature of the stools on the cocoa periods, additional observations were made on stool composition.

A summary of the results follows:

1. No statistically significant differences were demonstrated between the calcium balances of subjects on non-cocoa diets and those of the same subjects on cocoa diets. For all periods and subjects the daily calcium balances averaged — 12.85 ± 11.0 and — 8.70 ± 9.7 mg for the non-cocoa and cocoa diets, respectively.

2. This similarity of response is further illustrated by the calculated calcium utilization values. For the 8 subjects, the latter values averaged 20.0 ± 1.3% on the non-cocoa diets and 21.3 ± 1.4% on the cocoa diets.

3. The average daily calcium requirements for all subjects were 686 ± 52 mg on cocoa and 669 ± 42 mg on non-cocoa diets. The average requirement for all subjects on all diets was then 678 ± 32 mg daily, or 11.8 ± 0.5 mg per kilogram of body weight.

4. Even though significant changes in calcium balance were not demonstrated to result from the addition of cocoa to the diet, there was a significant effect upon the path of calcium excretion. With the inclusion of cocoa, in 25 of 27 comparisons the urinary calcium fell, and in 23 of 27 cases the fecal calcium rose above that of adjacent periods in which cocoa was omitted.

5. With cocoa feeding, increases in the fecal excretion of dry matter and nitrogen were observed in each of 4 dietary comparisons. Total calories excreted increased in each of three possible comparisons.

It may be concluded that the tolerance of the subjects of this experiment for cocoa of the grade used was approximately one ounce daily, and that any possible deleterious effect of cocoa on calcium utilization was completely obscured by the variation (both within groups and within subjects) of the experimental data.

² Now at the Department of Home Economics, University of California, Los Angeles.

Manuscript received 15 August 1949.