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Could Chocolate Be Linked to Lower Blood Pressure?
A study in the Netherlands of males who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day reports that the men had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death. Just that statement alone should make any chocolate lover want to read any more details about the study.
Data collected in the Netherlands for more than a decade has been looking at risk factors in Dutch men who were 65, or older, in 1985. Unfortunately, Associated Press writer Carla K. Johnson has reported that the Zutphen Elderly Study, co-authored by nutritional epidemiologist Brian Buijsse, does not give us the certainty that chocolate led to better health.
The researchers went on to say, however, that “it’s way too early to conclude it was chocolate that led to better health.” For example, those men who ate more cocoa products could have shared other qualities that made them healthier. Further, the experts caution that eating too much chocolate can make you fat – a risk for both heart disease and high blood pressure.
Yet, the study, conducted at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, appears to be the largest so far to document a health effect for cocoa beans. At a minimum, it would seem that this gives those who crave, enjoy or otherwise seek chocolate regularly, something to get excited about. The Dutch study, supported by grants from the Netherlands Prevention Foundation, also confirms findings of smaller, shorter-term studies that also linked chocolate with lower blood pressure.
The long-running study has been used by other researchers to look for risk factors for chronic disease. In this study, researchers examined the eating habits of 470 healthy men who were not taking blood pressure medicine. The men who ate the most products made from cocoa beans - including cocoa drinks, chocolate bars and chocolate pudding - had lower blood pressure and a 50 percent lower risk of death.
The men ate the equivalent of about 10 grams of chocolate each day. NOTE: Cocoa beans contain flavanols, which are thought to increase nitric oxide in the blood and improve the function of blood vessels. Researcher Buijsse noted that men eating the most cocoa products were not heavier or bigger eaters than those men who ate less cocoa.
Alright ladies, you’d like to know if there are implications or correlations of the study for you, right? Well, Buijsse pointed out that his study consisted of elderly men. However, he added that “if you look at the other interventional studies, you see the same effects in men and women, younger people and older people. It may be the findings are generalizable to women, but you never know.”
Anyway chocolate lovers, perhaps someone in the U.S. will attempt to replicate the study – and need some volunteers!
Material taken from Newsday
Carla K. Johnson, AP
February 27, 2006
This page was last updated Thursday, February 14, 2008