James I Dower, Johanna M Geleijnse, Peter CH Hollman, Sabita S Soedamah-Muthu, and Daan Kromhout, Dietary epicatechin intake and 25-y risk of cardiovascular mortality: the Zutphen Elderly Study, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, First published May 25, 2016

Monday Aug 29, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Peter Hollman et al. from Wageningen University in Wageningen, Netherlands conducted a study and found evidence suggesting that consumption of tea and cocoa products which are high in epicatechin may help reduce risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

The study shows that high intake of epicatechin from tea and cocoa was associated with up to 46% reduction in the death risk from cardiovascular disease in men who were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.

Previous studies have already shown that consumption of tea and cocoa is linked to lower risk for cardiovascular disease.  And trials have also shown that tea and cocoa improve cardiovascular risk biomarkers. Tea and cocoa is the major source of flavan-3-ol -an epicatechin.

For the Zutphen Elderly Study, 774 men aged 65 to 84 were surveyed for their intake of epicatechin four times in 15 years.  The association between epicatechin intake and risk of cardiovascular mortality was estimated for a 25-year period.

Overall, the reduction in the death risk from cardiovascular disease in the elderly men was 38%. (David Liu)