Eating dark chocolate to lower blood pressure?

A small German study in the March 4, 2010 issue of American Journal of Hypertension suggests eating a small portion of flavanol rich dark chocolate daily may reduce risk for heart disease.

Desch S and colleagues from University of Leipzig-Heart Center in Leipzig, Germany found that people ate 6 grams of dark chocolate per day for three months lowered their blood pressure by 2.3 mm Hg compared to the baseline blood pressure.

But eating more dark chocolate did not lead to a greater reduction in blood pressure.  Those who ate 25 grams per day lowered their blood pressure only by 1.9 mm Hg compared to their blood pressure at baseline.

Desch et al cautioned that the small trial did not have a control group and confounding factors may be involved, meaning eating dark chocolate may not necessarily the contributing factor for the reduction in blood pressure.

The researchers also observed that those who ate the higher amounts gain 0.8 kilogram of body weight after the study, which involved 102 patients with prehypertension/stage 1 hypertension.

Hypertension is a risk factor for all clinical manifestations of atherosclerosis since it is a risk factor for atherosclerosis itself. It is an independent predisposing factor for heart failure, coronary artery disease, stroke, renal disease, and peripheral arterial disease. it is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries, according to Wikipedia.