More and more small-scale studies done around the world in past decade show that dark chocolate may in fact be very beneficial, because it helps fight heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes. The research is not conclusive yet, as all experiments have been performed on few subjects, but it points strongly towards the same results: a few dark chocolate squares a day, keep the doctor away. It goes without saying that overindulgence is out of the question because the sweet sensation does bring a pouch of calories and sugar with each bite. The reason why the chocolate richer in cocoa is healthier is because the cocoa contains plant substances called flavonoids, which have been proved to have antioxidant effects.
Let’s take a recent Swiss study conducted by prof. Roberto Corti, which took 25 smokers and split them into two groups. One group was given approximately two ounces of dark chocolate containing 74 percent cocoa and the control group was given two ounces of white chocolate, which is made out of cocoa butter and contains no cocoa. The experimenters measured then platelet activity and the flexibility of the blood vessels in the upper arm of each subject. Those who had eaten the dark chocolate had those measures considerably improved, with the effects lasting to eight hours, but those who had eaten the white chocolate showed no change.
Another study in progress at the William Harvey Research Institute in London is trying to investigate as well whether dark chocolate can help fight heart disease. The experiment involves 40 cardiovascular patients, and the researchers expect to come up with compelling results only and specific types of good chocolate after 6 to 12 months. The thing they are positive about is that the chocolate has to contain at least 85 percent cocoa. We’re moving toward the bitter end.
So it seems that in all experiments involving dark chocolate the same conclusion was reached by the scientists. The cocoa used in dark chocolate contains a plant substance called flavonoid in higher quantities than in any other fruit or vegetable; the substance is an antioxidant that keeps the cholesterol from gathering in the blood vessels and reduce the risk of blood clots, but is generally destroyed in the process of the manufacturing of the sweeter chocolates.
The theory of the flavonoids was strengthened by an experiment conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, where 21 healthy adults were split yet again into two groups. One group ate one Dove Dark Chocolate bar containing epicatechin, a type of flavonoid (there have been discovered over 4000 types in fruits and veggies), every day for two weeks and the control group ate dark chocolate whose flavonoids had been taken out. Guess what were the results? Precisely. Chocolate high in flavonoids had a positive effect on the functioning of the blood vessels, whereas the dark chocolate lacking them did not present an effect.
Everything indicates the same finite result. If you consume the right type of chocolate, you actually help your health, your heart in particular. Let’s get this cocoa party started already!
