Chocolate Fix
Cocoa and cocoa products – particularly dark chocolate, contain high levels of flavonols, a potent type of antioxidant.
A team from University of Milan (Italy) assessed the effect
of a dark chocolate composed of 860 mg polyphenols and containing 58 mg
epicatechin, a specific type of antioxidant polyphenol. The team
assigned 20 healthy men and women, average age 24.2 years, to consume a
balanced diet for 4 weeks, midway through which one-half of the
subjects were asked to additionally consume dark chocolate. The
researchers observed that catechin levels increased just two hours
after the consumption of the dark chocolate, a rise that coincidentally
correlated to decreases in DNA damage on the order of 20% that were
observed in blood cells.
Researchers from the Laboratory of
Genetic and Environmental Epidemiology at Catholic University (Italy)
studied a group of 5,000 subjects in generally good health over a
one-year period. Specifically, the evaluated the anti-inflammatory
properties of dark chocolate, as measured by serum levels of C-reactive
protein (CRP), a blood marker of inflammation. The team found that
those subjects who consumed 1 serving (20 g) of dark chocolate every 3
days had serum CRP concentrations that were significantly lower than
those who did not eat any chocolate. According to the researchers,
these reductions in CRP translate to a 33% risk reduction of
cardiovascular disease in women and 26% reduction in men.
A
team from Karolinska Institute (Sweden) followed 1,169 non-diabetic
patients hospitalized with a confirmed first acute myocardial infarction
(AMI), surveying them for their chocolate consumption during the
preceding 12 months and conducting a health examination 3 months after
discharge. Participants were followed for hospitalizations and mortality
with national registries for 8 years. The researchers found that
chocolate consumption was strongly inversely associated with cardiac
mortality, observing that eating chocolate two or more times a week
slashes cardiac death by 66%, but less frequent consumption is also
associated with smaller decreased risks.
German Institute of
Human Nutrition (Nuthetal, Germany) researchers studied 19,357 people,
ages 35 to 65 years, enrolled in the Potsdam arm of the European
Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) study. Following the
subjects for at least ten years, the team found that those who ate the
most amount of chocolate -- an average of 7.5 grams a day -- had lower
blood pressure and a 39% lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke,
as compared to those who ate the least amount of chocolate -- an
average of 1.7 grams a day. The researchers observed that the
difference between the two groups amounted to six grams of chocolate,
or the equivalent of less than one small square of a 100g bar.
A team from Nestle Research Center (Switzerland) reported that a small
portion of dark chocolate can ward off stress. The team studied 30 men
and women, each of whom were classified by anxiety level. The study
subjects consumed 20 grams of dark chocolate in the mid-morning and
again in the afternoon. Noting that those subjects with high anxiety
traits had a distinct metabolic profile, the researchers observed that
after two weeks of consuming 40 grams of dark chocolate daily, levels of
stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical markers were
reduced.
McMaster University (Canada) researchers analyzed
various studies involving chocolate consumption to ascertain its
effects on stroke risk. One study revealed an association with stroke
for chocolate consumption once a week as opposed to none per week,
with another study suggesting that flavonoid intake from eating
chocolate weekly lowered death caused by a stroke.
Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Massachusetts,
USA) observed that 13 men and women (average age 72 years) who consumed
flavonol-rich cocoa (900 mg per day) for two weeks demonstrated a 10%
increase in cerebral blood flow.]
Indulge in dark chocolate, but modestly. Twenty grams twice a week may help improve your cardiovascular risk profile.
