Dark Chocolate May Lower Risk of Heart Disease (USN&WR)

[eppur_se_muova]

TUESDAY, April 24 (HealthDay News) -- Dark chocolate may lower your risk of heart disease by lowering levels of blood glucose and bad cholesterol while boosting levels of good cholesterol, a small new study suggests.

Chocolate contains compounds called flavanols, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Previous research has shown a link between flavanol intake and risk for cardiovascular disease.

In this study, San Diego State University researchers assigned 31 people to consume 50 grams per day of either dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa) or white chocolate (0 percent cocoa). Dark chocolate was used because it has higher flavanol levels than milk chocolate.

The participants' blood pressure, forearm skin blood flow, circulating lipid (fat) profiles and blood glucose levels were recorded before and after they consumed the chocolate for 15 days.

The tests revealed that those who ate dark chocolate had lower levels of blood glucose and "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and higher levels of "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol than those who ate white chocolate.
***
more: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/04/24/dark-chocolate-may-lower-risk-of-heart-disease




YYYYYYYEESSSSSSSSS !!

[elleng]

1. I KNOW, I KNOW!!!

[2on2u]

2. I love me some Ghirardelli 86% cacao. n/t

[Odin2005]

6. Me, too!

[emilyg]

3. Yes!!!! Love it at night to calm

me down. Nightly treat.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. It does that ?? Dang, now I need to eat more of it !

(Who am I kidding -- when it enters this house, it never lasts to bedtime.)

[BlueIris]

5. I've recently worked dark chocolate back into my diet again.

It's not my favorite thing, (I don't like sweets) but it seems like the payoff could be big.

[grasswire]

7. I'm no statistician, but shouldn't there have been a control?

A third group that ate no chocolate?

Maybe the result isn't precisely that dark chocolate is good for you; maybe it's just that white chocolate is bad for you.

[trotsky]

8. It definitely stands out as something amiss.

My diet isn't perfect, but I try to eat a balanced one, with plenty of healthy fats like olive oil and Omega-3s. And I eat dark chocolate almost every day, just a bite or two. Mainly because it's one of those rare foods that I love AND that seems to be good for me.

At my recent checkup my HDL was 79, and my LDL and triglycerides very low. Too many other factors going on here of course but I would be a data point in support of the study's conclusions.

[truebrit71]

9. Yes, dammit, you are right....I was just about to do the happy dance before I realized that...

...saying that eating dark choc is better than eating white choc, without a 'didn't eat any choc at all' group doesn't mean that eating dark choc is "good for you"....

Without a control group this is a study basically saying that dark choc is 'less bad for you than white choc'...

Damn, Damn, Damn....

[grasswire]

10. exactly! n/t

[Cleita]

11. Maybe that's why I escaped this disease in a family where it's been

a major killer. I have a little chocolate every day and have done so for decades.

[Ilsa]

12. Mmmm. I like 72% cocoa chocolates! nt