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Chocolate linked to lower blood pressure
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-28 09:01
Leave it to the Dutch to help demonstrate the health benefits of chocolate. A
study of older men in The Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate,
indicated those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day
had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death.
Kevin Tilley scrutinizes CocoaVia health bars
moving down a production line at Mars Inc.'s Masterfoods plant in Albany,
Ga., on Feb. 1, 2006. Mars introduced CocoaVia to appeal to
health-conscious consumers who also enjoy fine chocolates. The company
says CocoaVia contains higher levels of natural antioxidants known as
flavanols than regular chocolate. Flavanols are thought to have a
blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood
pressure. Hershey, the nation's leading confectioner, is also touting the
health benefits of flavanols in some of its products.
[AP] |
The researchers say, however, it's too
early to conclude it was chocolate that led to better health. The men who ate
more cocoa products could have shared other qualities that made them healthier.
Experts also point out that eating too much chocolate can make you fat — a risk
for both heart disease and high blood pressure.
"It's way too early to make recommendations about whether people should eat
more cocoa or chocolate," said Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at
Wageningen University in The Netherlands, who co-authored the study.
Still, the Dutch study, supported by grants from the Netherlands Prevention
Foundation, appears to be the largest so far to document a health effect for
cocoa beans. And it confirms findings of smaller, shorter-term studies that also
linked chocolate with lower blood pressure.
The findings, published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, are based
on data collected for more than a decade on Dutch men who were ages 65 and older
in 1985. The long-running Zutphen Elderly Study has been used by other
researchers to look for risk factors for chronic disease.
This time, 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.
Cocoa beans contain flavanols, which are thought to increase nitric oxide in
the blood and improve the function of blood vessels.
"This is a very important article providing epidemiological support for what
many researchers have been observing in experimental models," said Cesar Fraga
of the University of California Davis, who does similar research but was not
involved in the new study.
Buijsse noted the men eating the most cocoa products were not heavier or
bigger eaters than the men who ate less cocoa.
Could the study results apply to women?
"Our study consisted of elderly men," Buijsse said. "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."
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