Iowa National Guard members identified as soldiers killed in ISIS ambush in Syria
The U.S. troops who were killed and injured in Saturday’s ambush attack in Syria were members of the Iowa National Guard, a senior U.S. official told Fox News.
An ISIS gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon in the central Syrian town of Palmyra, killing two Iowa National Guard soldiers and an American civilian translator, the official said.
Three additional U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack.
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Preliminary information suggests the attacker was once affiliated with the Syrian government forces and had been a low-level member of the Syrian Security Forces, before later becoming connected to ISIS, the official said.
“He was not a part of the official delegation that was being escorted by the US and Syrian troops,” the official said. “… This would not be considered a ‘green on blue’ incident because the Syrian gunman was not part of the US/Syrian partnered delegation.”
2 US ARMY SOLDIERS, INTERPRETER KILLED IN SYRIA AMBUSH ATTACK, TRUMP WARNS OF ‘VERY SERIOUS RETALIATION’
Earlier Saturday, U.S. Central Command confirmed the deaths and injuries were a “result of an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman in Syria.”
President Donald Trump warned that there will be “very serious retaliation” following the ambush.
“We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria, two soldiers, and one Civilian Interpreter. Likewise, we pray for the three injured soldiers who, it has just been confirmed, are doing well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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Trump added, “This was an ISIS attack against the U.S. and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them.”
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Last month, two West Virginia National Guard members were ambushed and shot near the White House in Washington, D.C., in a targeted attack that left one soldier dead.
One killed after U-Haul truck explodes in retail shopping center parking lot
One person is dead after a U-Haul truck explosion early Saturday morning, authorities said.
The blast happened around 7:15 a.m. in the parking lot of an Old Navy store in Lewiston, Idaho, just across the border from Washington state. Douglas Petersen, 61, was killed in the blast, according to the Nez Perce County Coroner’s Office.
Preliminary findings suggest it was accidental.
Investigators say the truck appeared to be carrying stored materials, including gasoline and propane tanks, according to a joint statement from the Lewiston Police Department and Lewiston Fire Department.
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“At this time, there is no indication the incident is criminal in nature,” Lewiston Fire Marshal Julian Sorrell said in a statement.
The explosion caused damage to nearby businesses, including Old Navy and the Courtyard Marriott. No fire erupted after the blast, officials said.
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Officials said there is no immediate threat to the public, but they are asking residents and visitors to avoid the area “to allow emergency crews and investigators to safely complete their work.”
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Multiple agencies responded, including the Lewiston Fire Department, Lewiston Police Department, Idaho State Police, the City of Lewiston Streets Division and Nez Perce County officials.
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On Thursday, a home explosion near Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area left six people hospitalized.
Jimmy Kimmel rips Time magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year choice, cover art
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel tore into Time magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year cover featuring the “Architects of AI,” referring to the eight-person lineup of tech CEOs as “the eight dorks of the apocalypse.”
Kimmel kicked off Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” with a dramatic reveal of Time’s Person of the Year, slamming the outlet for not only its choice of winners, but also the cover’s overall design, which he said looked like “Photoshop from 2007.”
The cover features Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, xAI’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AMD’s Lisa Su, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Fei-Fei Li of Stanford and World Labs.
“Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg and five other off-kilter tech sisters and bros, the architects of AI, are the Person of the Year,” Kimmel revealed to his audience, which booed in response.
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The late-night host quipped that he was “expecting more enthusiasm” from the crowd before continuing to blast the “Architects of AI.”
“They call them architects. And I wonder, is it customary for an architect to have no idea how a building they’ve designed works or whether or not it will one day rise up to try to kill them?” he questioned.
A common concern among critics of artificial intelligence (AI) is that the technology will eventually take over humans’ jobs. Kimmel leaned into that idea, noting the irony of “the people who replaced people” winning this year’s Person of the Year award.
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Shifting his focus to the cover art, Kimmel told the show’s producers to “put that cover back up for a second” so he could get back to roasting it.
“I want to say, ironically, with as much as you can do with AI graphically, it looks like Photoshop from 2007,” he snarked.
According to Time, the work by digital painter Jason Seiler is “an homage to the famous 1932 photograph of construction workers on a steel beam 800 feet above the RCA building in New York City.”
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AI and its various applications have been taking the world by storm, with many predicting significant changes on the horizon as the technology progresses and permeates society.
“Thanks to Huang, [SoftBank’s Masayoshi] Son, Altman, and other AI titans, humanity is now flying down the highway, all gas no brakes, toward a highly automated and highly uncertain future,” Time wrote.
Last year, the outlet named President-elect Donald Trump its 2024 Person of the Year.
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Musk fires back after Newsom’s office claims ‘your daughter hates you’
Elon Musk is in a battle with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office over the Tesla CEO’s transgender daughter, who goes by Vivian Jenna Wilson.
The spat started when Musk’s America PAC reposted a clip of Newsom on “The Ezra Klein Show” in which he says, “There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have.” The governor made the comment while discussing his stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, an issue where Newsom has broken away from other prominent Democrats.
While interviewing Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk in the inaugural episode of his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” the California governor made waves by saying it was “deeply unfair” to have transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Newsom’s press office responded to America PAC’s commentary on the clip from “The Ezra Klein Show” by taking a jab at Musk.
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“Correct. We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon,” the governor’s press office wrote on X, a platform that Musk owns.
The SpaceX CEO came back with a blistering response, doubling down on his refusal to call Wilson his daughter.
“I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers,” Musk wrote. “My daughters are Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia, and they do indeed love me very much.”
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The X owner then pinned a post on his profile in which he wrote, “If you have a womb, you are a woman. Otherwise, you are not.”
Musk opened up about his thoughts on minors receiving gender surgery during a 2024 interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson. The Tesla CEO said he was “essentially tricked” into giving consent for Wilson to go on puberty blockers.
“It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion, and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t,” Musk told Peterson.
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He went on to talk about the concept of “deadnaming,” or calling a transgender person by their birth name.
“I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason,” Musk said. “The reason it’s called ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. So, my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”
Musk added that, after what happened, he “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.”
Fox News’ Yael Halon contributed to this report.
Former FBI agent loses position weeks after Trump administration rehired him
A former FBI agent and COVID-era whistleblower who was recently reinstated under President Donald Trump was fired Friday, according to a report.
The FBI dismissed Steve Friend for “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment,” according to a copy of a termination letter posted on X by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
An FBI source confirmed the firing but would not elaborate, saying it was a personnel matter.
The FBI stated in the letter that Friend “participated in unauthorized interactions with the media, publicly disseminated media sources, and commented publicly on FBI matters and ongoing FBI investigations.”
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Friend was first suspended by the FBI in August 2022 and resigned in February 2023. He was reinstated in September.
In the letter, the FBI stated that, in November, Friend “disseminated media sources and photographs identifying an alleged subject and discussed the alleged subject on your podcast, despite the lack of credible, verifiable evidence necessary to publicly identify the subject.”
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Friend said his ouster was retaliation by FBI Director Kash Patel.
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Friend’s dismissal from the bureau came after his attorneys at Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research dropped him as a client Dec. 5.
The nonprofit organization said in a letter to Friend that he had ignored its advice by commenting publicly on FBI matters, “risking further adverse administrative action” by the bureau.
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“In light of your apparent unwillingness to follow the free professional advice we have given you, we are even more convinced that our previously expressed inability to represent you regarding any legal matters other than your reinstatement was warranted,” the nonprofit wrote.
“We are no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward.”
Family finds grandfather’s skeleton under home decades after disappearance
Michael Carroll’s son stiffened — a cold jolt running through him — when his shovel struck what looked like rags and bones in the basement on Halloween eve 2018.
Chris Carroll and his brother, Mike Carroll Jr., had been digging for months in the family house in Lake Grove, Long Island, New York. The patriarch, who started the digging, had recently suffered a stroke and needed help just to go down the stairs.
“Dad, I think I found something,” said Chris.
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He and his sibling had no idea they’d uncovered the skeletal remains of their grandfather, George Carroll, who had disappeared half a century earlier.
The months-long excavation is the subject of a new true-crime documentary premiering Dec. 16 on Investigation Discovery (ID), “The Secrets We Bury.”
Patricia E. Gillespie, a New York-based director, came across the story of Carroll’s quest in a local newspaper. Intrigued, she began her own investigation and soon located him.
“I met Mike just a couple of days after he uncovered the mystery of his father,” Gillespie told Fox News Digital. “We really hit it off so much that, at the end of the meeting, he took me down to the basement, where there was still a giant hole. I thought to myself, ‘I’m really lucky he’s a good person.’
“For many, many years, people thought Mike and his sister Jean Kennedy were crazy,” Gillespie said. “They were just told, ‘Your dad left. Why can’t you accept this?’
“Solving the mystery itself became a jumping-off point for a thousand other little mysteries and secrets.”
George, a U.S. Army Korean War veteran, disappeared in 1963. His son, Carroll, was about 8 months old at the time. Carroll’s late mother, Dorothy Carroll, always said he went out for cigarettes and “just never came back.” Rumors claimed he met a woman in Korea and started a new life with her. The documentary noted George was never reported missing.
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“He came back from this war with a bunch of kids at home,” Gillespie said of George. “They weren’t talking about what had happened in the war. You didn’t necessarily engage with a therapist in those generations. It was just a different time. It must have been tough to go from the Korean War to your tiny little house with a bunch of kids. [But] his children loved him. For those too young, they loved the idea of him.”
For decades, the Carroll children wondered what became of their father. Desperate for answers, Kennedy — a no-nonsense believer in the supernatural — consulted a psychic in 2010. She convinced her brother to join her, even though he was skeptical.
The psychic told them that George was murdered and buried in the basement. Carroll bought the property from his mother in 1993. Dorothy died of cancer in 1998.
“Jean says it’s her ‘long-distance call’ to her mom,” Gillespie said of Kennedy’s interest in mediums. “Like all of us, when you lose somebody you care about, there are all these conversations you wish you could have had or things you wish you could have worked out. And for Jean, I think the psychic was an opportunity to do that — to make that long-distance call to the great beyond.”
According to the documentary, George’s brother had also told Carroll that his side of the family believed George was killed.
Carroll, desperate for answers, began digging. He never wanted to believe George had abandoned him and his three older siblings. Even after uncovering a dark family secret, the mystery wasn’t over.
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“It opened up a door to something so much deeper,” Gillespie said. “You’re looking for a man, you find him in these dramatic circumstances — the end, right? I think a lot of stories end there. But for them, it was just the beginning of figuring out how to reconcile with this. And that answer wasn’t found in forensics, a police report or a court proceeding.”
When police initially received a call from Carroll, they laughed it off, believing it was a prank. But Carroll was persistent, and they eventually stopped by the home. To their dismay, there were bones several feet below the basement. They were later confirmed to be George’s.
Police classified George’s death as a homicide. His skull had been fractured by blunt force trauma.
Carroll believed the person who may have been responsible for his father’s disappearance was his stepfather, Richard Darress. He was a young handyman George had hired to help with a construction project and who later lived in the home.
Soon after Dorothy told her children their father had abandoned them, she married Darress. They shared a son, “Richie,” before divorcing in 1983. According to the documentary, the Carroll siblings claimed their stepfather was physically abusive and had sexually assaulted the girls.
“Richie [who appeared in the film] was put in such a tough position,” Gillespie said.
“No matter who your dad is, you love your dad. You don’t want to believe anything tough about your dad. But some of the other kids started to talk — not so much about George Carroll but about some of their own negative experiences growing up with their stepfather. I think a lot of guys in Richie’s position would just plug their ears and say, ‘No, not my dad. Not part of me. Not my name.’”
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“Richie didn’t,” Gillespie continued. “Richie believed his siblings. He said to us, ‘My siblings are my real family. So, of course, I believe them.’ I think that he just showed so much strength and care. … He really prioritized his siblings’ feelings. At the same time, the siblings were also working to protect him because, as they pushed deeper into this mystery, they started to find creepier, scarier things — more disturbing stuff. But they always thought, ‘What about Richie? How is he going to feel?’”
Darress died in June 2018 at age 77, a funeral home in Laredo, Texas, previously told Fox News Digital. Before his death, he had been living in Mexico, across the border from Laredo.
For years, the siblings tried to question their mother, hoping she had clues that could lead to answers. But Dorothy would curtly remark that George wasn’t “a good guy.” While there’s speculation she may have been involved in George’s disappearance after their tumultuous marriage, her children continue to defend her.
“When that initial wave of press came out after Mike found his dad, a lot of it pointed the finger very firmly at her,” Gillespie said. “Yet the thing that stood out to me the most about their relationship with their mother is how all of them love her. All of them absolutely worship her.
“There was some really complicated stuff that went on within the family,” she said. “There were some unanswered questions that, frankly, will remain unanswered forever, because most of the people had died by the time George was found. But what struck me most was their unyielding defense of their mother. They are united by their love for her to this day.”
On Oct. 25, 2019, George was laid to rest with military honors at a national cemetery on Long Island. Police said they may never determine how he died.
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“About two weeks ago, Mike’s son sent me a picture,” Gillespie said. “They finally filled in the hole in the basement. There’s a feeling that you can finally grieve, that you’ve done what you needed to do for your family — both the ones who are here and the ones who are gone. … This story goes beyond just the mystery of how this man disappeared.”
Actor says ‘woke liberal college kids’ need to stop telling farmers what to do
Adrian Grenier has “compassion” for farmers who encounter critics trying to tell them how to do their jobs.
During a recent interview on “The Dan Buettner Podcast,” the 49-year-old actor spoke about his passion for sustainability and why people should “show some respect” to farmers and understand the realities they are facing before judging how they operate.
“Frankly, these woke liberal college kids who come in with all these big ideas trying to tell farmers that they got to do one thing because it’s bad for the environment,” he said. “Well, you know, put your money where your mouth is and go out and try and solve for farming practices instead of telling the farmers who are in the trenches trying to make food that you don’t even want to pay whatever for organic cause it’s too expensive.”
He explained that, growing up in New York, he didn’t know much about farming, but as an environmentalist, he “had all these abstract ideas of how things should be,” and he understood why farmers may “turn to chemical fertilizers.”
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“I get the luxury of trying to reinvent and figure out regenerative, healthy, organic ways of doing things, but it’s hard,” he explained. “If my crop dies, I’ll still get to eat. Farmers, their margins are razor-thin, and if they lose a crop, their family doesn’t eat.”
Grenier also discussed his life as an actor and why he chose to leave Hollywood. The actor initially left Hollywood in 2016 but has appeared in projects since then.
Known for his roles in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Entourage,” Grenier explained that on episodes of the show there were never any consequences for bad behavior, but that “real life isn’t like that.”
“I always attempted to keep a level head about myself, even though, as time went on, I realized that I had indulged a little too much in that world, that I had forgotten my true center or my north star Or perhaps I never had a north star to begin with, but I had to reorient myself with spirituality and my purpose on the planet,” he said.
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He came to realize that the path he was on was not leading him anywhere good, leaving him to think, “What have I given? What have I cultivated?”
He told “Today with Hoda & Jenna” in February 2024 he felt as if he “was flying high for many years” living in Hollywood and New York, noting, “I live a much more grounded lifestyle now.”
In 2020, the actor founded Kintsugi Ranch with his wife, Jordan Roemmele, outside Austin, Texas, and has been involved with environmental work for many years, calling the farm his “ultimate recognition of” what he wants to do with his time on Earth.
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“You sleep better, you’re more grounded, you have a sense of wellbeing,” he told People about life on the farm in September 2023. “It’s good for mental health, it’s good for skill building, resilience and all of that. I think it allows you to make more informed, wiser choices when it comes to how you live, how you treat others and, in particular, how you treat the environment.”
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Although he has slowed down in acting, Grenier recently hosted the reality show “CryptoKnights” and recently wrapped production on the film “You, Always.”
Cause of death revealed in Universal Orlando coaster tragedy
The death of 32-year-old Kevin Rodriguez Zavala was ruled accidental, and the investigation has been closed, according to an incident report from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Zavala was riding a high-speed roller coaster at Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe theme park when he was found unresponsive. The sheriff’s office said security footage showed that Zavala was “engaged and well” at the start of the ride but was unresponsive when the coaster arrived back at the loading/unloading dock.
Stardust Racers, part of Universal Orlando’s newest theme park, Epic Universe, is a dual-launch coaster that travels up to 62 mph. Universal Orlando says the roller coaster reaches heights of up to 133 feet.
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Zavala’s family released a statement on Saturday via their attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
“The family of Kevin Rodriguez Zavala and Universal have reached an amicable resolution in this matter. The terms are confidential. The family is grateful for the community’s support and asks for privacy at this time.”
An employee who spoke with the sheriff’s office said Zavala had “severe facial trauma.” Additionally, a witness quoted in the incident report told the sheriff’s office that Zavala was “slumped over with blood coming from his head. His left leg was at a 90-degree angle in between the lap bar.”
Anna Marshall, a medical doctor, was waiting to board Stardust Racers when she heard someone screaming “Get me out!” She assumed it was someone having trouble breathing as a result of the ride, according to the report.
The incident report states that Marshall informed staff that she was a medical doctor and could assist in the situation. Marshall told authorities that she saw Zavala “completely slouched over with blood surrounding him.” She told investigators at the time she noted that Zavala’s thigh bone was completely broken in half and resting on the back of the ride chair.
Javiliz Cruz-Robles, Zavala’s girlfriend, was also on the ride and told investigators that employees pushed down on Zavala’s lap bar several times before the ride began. However, she thought it was still too low.
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Cruz-Robles spoke with Marshall as the doctor attempted to administer aid to Zavala. Marshall recalled Cruz-Robles repeating, “His mom’s going to kill me,” referring to a conversation about Zavala going on rides.
Zavala was wheelchair-bound and had several medical challenges, according to his parents, Carlos Rodriguez Ortiz and Anne Zavala. Because of these issues, they were concerned about their son going on certain rides.
Kevin was born with spinal cord atrophy and had gone through surgeries throughout his life. They also said Kevin had previously fractured his femur in 2020, which also required surgery. Kevin also suffered from a hip dislocation that required surgery in 2010. Carlos told investigators that Kevin’s mother always told him not to ride roller coasters, but he never listened.
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The family had claimed that Zavala’s death was not an isolated incident but rather part of a patten.
Crump said in an October news conference that the safety systems on Stardust Racers were “inadequate” and noted the ride history presents an “alarming timeline.”
Universal’s records, which were obtained by WOFL, showed that the theme park had records of two injuries since its opening. The first occurred June 22, when a 63-year-old man reported dizziness and an altered state of consciousness, which the theme park attributed to a preexisting condition. The second incident took place two days later when a 47-year-old woman reported a visual disturbance and numbness. The theme park attributed this to a preexisting condition as well.
In September, the District Nine Medical Examiner’s Office determined his cause of death to be “multiple blunt impact injuries and the manner of death to be an accident” after Zavala’s autopsy, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office noted in its incident report.
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The sheriff’s office determined that Epic Universe employees “followed their Standard Operating Procedures and did not act in a careless or neglectful manner.”
“Based upon the totality of the circumstances, with consideration of known, available evidence, to include sworn statements, video surveillance, the District Nine Medical Examiner’s Office findings, the standard operating procedures provided by Epic Universe, this case was deemed an accidental death and was closed accordingly,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the report.
Fox Business reached out to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Universal Orlando for comment.
Beloved treat linked to slower aging in new study, experts say — while urging caution
A beloved treat may hold a surprising secret to healthy aging, researchers say, but they warn it’s not a free pass to load up on sweets.
Researchers at King’s College London say theobromine, a natural compound in dark chocolate, is linked to slower biological aging, according to their study of nearly 1,700 adults across the U.K. and Germany. The findings were published this week in the journal Aging.
Participants with higher levels of theobromine consistently appeared biologically younger than their actual age, according to the research. The team detected the slower biological aging by comparing theobromine levels with key aging markers, including DNA-based tests that estimate how fast your body is aging and telomere length, the protective caps on chromosomes that shorten with age and are linked to age-related diseases.
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“Our study finds links between a key component of dark chocolate and staying younger for longer,” said senior study author Jordana Bell, a professor in epigenomics at King’s College London.
“While we’re not saying that people should eat more dark chocolate, this research can help us understand how everyday foods may hold clues to healthier, longer lives,” Bell added in a statement.
The connection between higher theobromine levels and slower aging held up even after researchers ruled out other compounds in chocolate and coffee, pointing to theobromine as the likely driver, according to the paper.
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Theobromine comes mainly from cocoa products and, to a lesser extent, coffee, so participants with higher levels in their blood likely consumed more cocoa-containing foods or drinks, though the research was observational and didn’t track what participants ate.
“This is a very exciting finding, and the next important questions are, ‘What is behind this association,’ and ‘How can we explore the interactions between dietary metabolites and our epigenome further?’” Dr. Ramy Saad, lead researcher at King’s College London and a doctor in clinical genetics, said in a statement.
“This approach could lead us to important discoveries towards aging, and beyond, in common and rare diseases.”
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The researchers are now looking into follow-up studies to better understand the findings, including whether theobromine works on its own or if its effects are boosted by other components in dark chocolate, like health-promoting polyphenols, according to a King’s College London news release.
“Although the study explores an interesting association, it does not tell us what happens when theobromine levels change due to eating more or less chocolate and how this changes our health,” Dimitrios Koutoukidis, an associate professor of diet, obesity and behavioral sciences at the University of Oxford, told Euronews.
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The researchers caution that eating more dark chocolate isn’t automatically beneficial as it also contains sugar, fat and other compounds.
Theobromine levels in dark chocolate also vary widely by cocoa content, with food chemistry analyses showing that a typical 40-gram bar can contain roughly 200 to 400 milligrams.
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“If people like it, they should enjoy it infrequently and in small amounts,” Koutoukidis, who was not involved in the study, advised.
Dark chocolate has previously been associated with other possible health benefits. Cocoa’s flavanols, in particular, may help reduce inflammation, support heart and vascular health, improve blood flow, stabilize blood sugar and boost memory, Fox News Digital previously reported.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the study authors for comment.