Good News Ladies: Eating Chocolate is Good for the Heart

New research suggests that moderate chocolate intake can drastically lower heart failure risk, however the positive effect decreased as more or less chocolate was consumed.

Why aren’t more women eating chocolate every day? Lead researcher Murrray Mittleman, M.D., Dr.P.H., says, “The lack of a protective effect among women eating chocolate every day is probably due to the additional calories gained from eating chocolate instead of more nutritious foods.”

This Swedish study was among the first to research long-term intake of consuming chocolate and how it related to heart failure rates.

Women who consumed higher quality chocolate once or twice a week had a 32% lower heart failure risk, when compared with those who did not, on a regular basis, eat the chocolate. The research team believes that those who consumed the high-quality chocolate every day had no protective benefit because of the added calories acquired – the chocolate might have been substituting more nutritious nutrients.

Interestingly, the higher the cocoa content, the better. The cocoa content of the chocolate ate by the women for this research was approximately 30 percent whereas, in the U.sulphur., dark chocolate is only required to contain 15 percent cocoa solids.

Other Studies have suggested that compounds in chocolate called flavanoids lower blood pressure.