Chocolates can melt your BP blues: docs
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, MARCH 30
Eat more chocolates, preferably dark ones, to lower blood pressure and reduce risk of heart disease, says a study published online on Tuesday in the European Heart Journal.
Researchers in Germany followed 19,357 people, aged between 35 and 65, for at least 10 years and found that those who ate the most amount of chocolates – an average of 7.5 grams a day – had lower blood pressure and a 39 per cent lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who ate the least amount of chocolate – an average of 1.7 grams a day. The difference between the two groups amounts to six grams of chocolate: the equivalent of less than
one small square of a 100g bar.
Dr Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, Nuthetal, who led the research said: “People who ate the most amount of chocolate were at a 39 per cent lower risk than those with the lowest chocolate intakes.”
However, he warned that it was important people ensured that eating chocolate did not increase their overall intake of calories or reduce their consumption of healthy foods. “Small amounts of chocolate may help prevent heart disease, but only if it replaces other energy-dense foods, such as snacks, in order to keep body weight stable,” he said.
“Our hypothesis was that because chocolate appears to have a pronounced effect on blood pressure, therefore chocolate consumption would lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks, with a stronger effect being seen for stroke,” explained Dr Buijsse.
This is, in fact, what the study found. During the eight years there were 166 heart attacks (24 fatal) and 136 strokes (12 fatal); people in the top quartile had a 27 per cent reduced risk of heart attacks and nearly half the risk (48%) of strokes, compared with those in the lowest quartile.
Although more research needs to be carried out, the researchers believe that flavanols in cocoa may be the reason why chocolate seems to be good for people’s blood pressure and heart health; and since there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, dark chocolate may have a greater effect.
“Flavanols appear to be the substances in cocoa that are responsible for improving the bioavailability of nitric oxide from the cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels – vascular endothelial cells,” said Dr Buijsse.
“Nitric oxide is a gas that, once released, causes the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels to relax and widen; this
may contribute to lower blood pressure. Nitric oxide also improves platelet function, making the blood less sticky, and makes the vascular endothelium less attractive for white blood cells to attach and stick around.”
The authors of the study conclude: “Given these and other promising health effects of cocoa, it is tempting to indulge more in chocolate. Small amounts of chocolate, however, may become part of a diet aimed to prevent CVD [cardiovascular disease] only after confirmation by other observational studies and particularly by randomized trials.”
The researchers found lower blood pressure due to chocolate consumption at the start of the study explained 12 per cent of the reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes, but even after taking this into account, those in the top quartile still had their risk reduced by a third (32%) compared to those in the bottom quartile over the duration of the study.
