Chocolate Good for Heart Health

By Rachel Stockton (rachels@foodconsumer.org)

Yes, you read the headline right, and no, you're not dreaming.

A Swedish study is confirming that heart attack sufferers who eat chocolate regularly are 3 times less likely to have another heart attack than those who never eat it.

Published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, the research consisted of following patients between the ages of 45 and 75, who had their first heart attack in the early 1990s.

There could be several reasons for result, not the least of which is the fact that chocolate is chock full of flavenoids which act as antioxidants by reducing free radicals. In fact, the darker the chocolate, the greater the health benefit; dark chocolate has a greater concentration of heart healthy flavenoids.

Another study, which published in the Journal of Nutrition and led by the Research Laboratories of the Catholic University in Campobasso and the National Cancer Institute of Milan, came to similar conclusions, but from a slightly different angle. The Italian study revealed that chocolate significantly reduces dangerous inflammation that can lead to cardiovascular disease. Keeping inflammation under control is a well known preventive strategy.

Specifically, chocolate eaters have a low amount of C- reactive protein, a known contributor to chronic inflammation, in their bloodstreams.

Hmm. . .maybe Nancy Pelosi is on to something; a reporter asked her to explain how her method for reaching consensus. "Chocolate," she said. Some of her aides confirmed that she does indeed keep a stash of Ghiradelli strategically placed throughout her suite of offices (New York Times).