If you have high blood pressure, you better be getting to the candy aisle. New research supports that dark chocolate eaten daily prevents fatal cardiovascular events.
According to The Atlantic researchers in Australia studied over 2,000 subjects as they consumed dark chocolate daily over the course of 10 years. Their findings, published in the British Medical Journal concluded that "chocolate consumption seem to be associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of cardiometabolic disorders." In layman's terms: the study found that if participants ate the chocolate religiously, non-fatal heart attacks and non-fatal strokes could be prevented.
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So what kind of chocolate do you need to eat? Dark chocolate is traditionally considered having 60 percent or more cacao and chocolate liquor. The higher the percentage, the more flavonoids the chocolate contains, and the more flavonoids, the more beneficial cardiovascular effects.
While you may have heard of the healthful benefits that dark chocolate provides, previous studies did not observe the long-term effects. While this study has shed new light, there are still unanswered questions, such as how much chocolate is enough and how much is too much?
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Some brands offering a high percent dark chocolate include: Lindt, Ghiradelli, Valrhona, Green & Black's, and Scharffen Berger.
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