Posted on 03/30/2010 1:49:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Eating as little as a quarter of an ounce of chocolate each day -- an amount equal to about one small Easter egg -- may lower your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, a new study has found. For best results, the chocolate should be dark, experts say.
"Dark chocolate exhibits the greatest effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," says the lead author of the study, Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, in Nuthetal, Germany.
In the study, Buijsse and his colleagues followed nearly 20,000 people for an average of eight years. The researchers surveyed the study participants about their chocolate consumption (as well as the rest of their diet), and also tracked the heart attacks and strokes that occurred in the group.
Compared with people who rarely ate chocolate (about one bar per month), the people who ate the most chocolate (slightly more than one bar per week) had a 27 percent and 48 percent reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, respectively, the researchers found.
Health.com: How to make chocolate a healthy indulgence The heart benefits observed in the study may be due in part to lower blood pressure, the study notes. Previous studies have suggested that eating chocolate can lower blood pressure, and the researchers observed a similar -- though less pronounced -- association in this study.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
What does a daily martini do?
Hearts dark chocolate. The darker the better. Some is good, more is better, right?
Thank You, God!
I’m thinking the candy market is slow, so we will pump it up for Easter. Maybe a piece of dark chocolate will help w/my suspicions.
See? You knew this. Admit it. There had to have been a reason for chocolate to be so beloved.
And, dark chocolate freshens the breath. Like celery. Or parsley. Parsley is actually a marvelous food.
Thanks, Joe - I took the bottom left one and refreshed my screen but it’s still on your tray. Did you replace it when I wasn’t looking? ;)
What is life without chocolate!
YEP...as I sit here eating a square of Lindts 85% dark chocolate....course...I also take at least 1500mg of Niacin a day, too....which is why I think my bad LDL turned into more GOOD LDL this past year!
Endangered Species Chocolate Bars, 3-Ounce Bars (Pack of 12)This is relevant to your interests.
I bypass the calories and expense by adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to my coffee every morning!
[55% cocoa content Organic Dark Chocolate Bar with cayenne, pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon]
Chocolate contains epicatechin, a type of Flavan-3-ol /Flavanol that reduces blood pressure. This is also found in other plants. However, chocolate also has theobromine, which reduces blood pressure.
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