A recent German study found that eating chocolate, drinking coffee or tea can help you live longer, containing these drinks with zinc supplements that activate a compound that helps slow down aging.

Chocolate, coffee and tea contain polyphenols, one of the most effective antioxidants for fighting cell damage.

Researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, have discovered that zinc activates a polyphenol, which in turn protects the harmful gases produced by cells, which destroy DNA and play a major role in aging.

These gases are linked to infections that can cause cancer and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

The study indicates that polyphenols can not only destroy harmful gases, but are more effective when they are combined with zinc.

The researchers cautioned against consuming large amounts of zinc, fearing nausea and alteration of taste, and hoping to produce the component supplemented with specific doses of food, according to the British daily newspaper Daily Mail.