Thaindian News

March 31, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Chocolate lovers can rejoice as studies have come up with the fact that chocolate reduces the heart risk by forty percent.

A group of German researchers followed nearly 20000 people, monitoring their diet and exercise habits for over eight years. They found that people who had one square of chocolate bar everyday had lower heart risk by about forty percent.

Earlier it was believed that dark chocolate in small amounts could be good for heart, but this is for the first time a study follows its effect over such a long period of time.

Experts think that Flavonols that are present in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and also chocolates are responsible as they help the muscles in blood vessels widen which leads to a drop in the blood pressure.

Brian Buijsse, a dietetic epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal, Germany, the study’s lead author said that, “It’s a bit too early to come up with recommendations that people should eat more chocolate, but if people replace sugar or high-fat snacks with a little piece of dark chocolate, that might help,” Since the study only observed people and did not give them chocolate directly to test what its effects were, experts said more research was needed to determine the candy’s exact impact on the body.

Dr. Robert Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, said that this should not be taken as a prescription to eat more chocolates. He added, “If we all had (a small amount) of chocolate every day for the rest of our lives, we would all gain a few pounds.” He said that more studies are required to confirm the protective effect of chocolate on human heart.

The study is scheduled to be published Wednesday in the European Heart Journal.