Summary

Original source:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0507200205jul20,1,5001380.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Details

• Eating half a bar of dark chocolate each day may lower high blood pressure, according to a new study--though experts cautioned that the results should not be read as an invitation for chocoholics to pig out.
• Rich in flavonoids--a group of beneficial chemicals found in certain fruits, vegetables, teas and red wines--dark chocolate previously had shown signs of reducing the overall risk of heart disease.
• But the new study, published this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association, is the first to suggest that the compounds in chocolate could specifically benefit people with hypertension.
• "I was surprised at the result," said Dr. Jeannette Newton Keith, assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology and nutrition at the University of Chicago, who was not connected to the study.
• Some ate dark chocolate and some ate the white variety, which has no cocoa and no flavonoids.
• The dark chocolate group saw a decrease of blood pressure to 138 over 86 after two weeks, while the white chocolate group had no decrease.
• The researchers also reported a 10 percent decrease in LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, in the dark chocolate group, with no change in the white chocolate group.
• Researchers said the results underscore the intriguing role of the flavonoids in chocolate and other foods.
• Flavonoids have antioxidant properties that prevent cellular damage, one possible cause of cancer and aging.
• "This research shows only one aspect of the many benefits [of] flavonoids in our health," said Brian McBurnett, a food chemist at the Eastern Regional Research Center at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Wyndmoor, Pa.
• The authors said in their report that the study was primarily meant to study the health effects of chemicals in dark chocolate, not to promote eating chocolate.

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