Chocolate 'boosts heart health'
Chocolate, in moderation, has benefits on mood as well as anti-oxidant properties. Now research points to chocolate being good for heart health, too, with a high level of chocolate consumption was associated with a 33% reduction in someone’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
That's according to the results of seven previous studies involving 100,000 people. The study was published in the British Medical Journal and the findings were presented at the European Cardiology Society’s annual congress in Paris.
Victoria Taylor, Senior Heart Health Dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Evidence does suggest chocolate might have some heart health benefits but we need to find out why that might be."
But before you head for the work vending machine, more research is needed on the quality and consistency of chocolate before recommendations can be made.
“We can’t start advising people to eat lots of chocolate based on this research. It didn’t explore what it is about chocolate that could help and if one particular type of chocolate is better than another."
Dark chocolate, with at least 70% cocoa content, is generally considered to be full of anti-oxidants and a couple of squares are fine at a mid-morning (or mid-afternoon) treat as part of a healthy diet.
