Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/04/choc_heart/
Plain chocolate could help your heart
Not a license to chow down
Posted in Science, 4th July 2007 08:47 GMT
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A tiny helping of dark chocolate could help keep your heart healthy, a study suggests.
Researchers from the University of Cologne studied the effect of a very small amount of chocolate, eaten every day, on the blood pressure of four adults with borderline high blood pressure.
Each participant was given a square of dark chocolate, containing 30 milligrams of polyphenols, every day. The researchers report that the average blood pressure fell, without any increase in weight.
Lead author Dr Dirk Taubert, a University of Cologne researcher, says this fall in blood pressure might be enough for patients to see a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, but stresses that the study did not go on for long enough to be sure.
Not such good news [1] for the chocolate companies, this one. But it was financed by the University Hospital in Cologne, so that isn't such a shock. The results are reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ®