UCP1 and Obesity: In a rat model of high-fat diet induced obesity (Gutiérrez-Salmeán et al., 2014), administration of (−)-epicatechin, the most abundant flavanol in cocoa, significantly improved cardiometabolic risk factors including weight gain and hypertriglyceridemia, and restored obesity-induced decreases in protein expression of several mitochondrial-associated factors, such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator alpha (PGC-1α), transcription factor A mitochondrial (TFAM) and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1).