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Chocolate Can Keep
Cardiovascular System in Shape
For those who think the world is
a bitter place, medical science offers this sweet health tidbit:
Chocolate might be good for you.
Not just any chocolate, and always
in moderation, said Mary Engler, a professor of physiological
nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, School
of Nursing. But her new study does find that biting into the right
stuff can make arteries expand, increasing blood flow and thus
reducing cardiovascular risk.
Milk chocolate won't do, Engler
sressed, because it's, well, too milky. Look for darker chocolates,
because darkness is an indicator of high levels of flavonoids,
the chemicals that loosen up the arteries.
And this is one instance where
good taste and good health go hand in hand, Engler said.
You can tell that a chocolate has
a high flavonoid content because "the flavor is so intense and
rich," she said.
The study that Engler and her colleagues
are reporting in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition
had 11 willing participants eat 1.6 ounces of flavonoid-rich chocolate
every day for two weeks. Another 10 volunteers, sacrificing themselves
for science, consumed an equal amount of low-flavonoid chocolate.
Ultrasound measurements showed
that expansion of the arteries in response to greater blood flow
increased by 10 percent in the flavonoid consumers, while there
was a slight decrease in those who got the flavonoid-poor chocolate.
Blood levels of a powerful flavonoid, epicatechin, rose more than
eightfold for the high-flavonoid group and remained unchanged
for the others.
The study was done in collaboration
with the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
at Tufts University. Jeffrey Blumberg, chief of the center's Antioxidant
Research Laboratory, said the work has expanded to look at other
flavonoid-containing foods.
"Not only chocolate, but also tea,
oat bran, almond skins and blueberries, all are good sources of
flavonoids," Blumberg said. "We're trying to get a better understanding
of vital chemicals, flavonoids being one of the larger groups."
Chocolate "happens to be a rich
source of flavonoids," Blumberg said, but he added that "we are
not trying to position chocolate as a health food."
In addition to flavonoids, chocolate
also has a lot of calories and a lot of saturated fat, neither
of which is good for the arteries, he said.
"But in the context of a reasonable
diet, chocolate is not only a pleasurable food but might contain
some health-promoting ingredients," Blumberg said.
Recommendations about chocolate
can be compared with those about wine, Engler said. An occasional
glass or two of wine has been shown to be associated with a reduced
risk of cardiovascular disease, she said, "but people should not
be overindulgent with wine. The same is true of dark chocolate
in moderation as part of a well-balanced diet."
More information
You can explore the frontier of
chocolate research by consulting the Chocolate
Information Center.
Reference
Source 101
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