Eating dark chocolate can protect men against heart disease and stroke, scientists have claimed.

The benefits include anti-clotting effects which are activated within two hours in both sexes, and with greater impact in men, the Daily Mail reported.

Having a piece of chocolate a day – not just at Christmas – could be the secret to staying heart healthy, according to scientists at the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health.

Lead researcher Dr Baukje de Roos, from the Rowett Institute, said, “It’s an acute effect in the body that men and women both benefit from, but it’s more diluted in women.”

“These findings are not a carte blanche to eat chocolates as they are extremely rich in fat and sugar.

“But probably eating a little bit of dark chocolate containing at least 70 per cent cocoa every day is going to do more good than harm,” she added.

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I am sure there are others like me who do not eat chocolates. Somehow chocolates have always been related to spoilt teeth or weight gain. When the whole female world went reaching for it at their various hormonal stages, I would snub them, reaching for Bengali sweets to appease my moods.

But of late I find myself liking dark chocolates and craving for its texture and taste. I have these 60 %, 72% and 86% dark chocolates individually wrapped – intense mood elevating therapies- sitting in my freezer.

Yes, as a nutritionist I know how to eat them without guilt, for dark chocolate is not just a comfort food for us all at some level, it has healing properties in as much as red wine or green tea.

So what does it do?

Dark chocolates and cocoa contain the flavonols known as procyanidins and epicatechins which are antioxidants. These are found in the extracts of the cocoa bean. So lesser the bean is processed, darker the chocolate, and the healthier it is for your heart. Emerging research shows dark chocolates with over 60% cocoa mayreduce LDL cholesterol, reduce blood pressure aid in better blood flow to heart and brains reduce risk of blood clots and possibly improve cognitive function and thinking ability in older people

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Cocoa powder and dark chocolate can help improve blood circulation, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The Swiss group, Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest maker of chocolate products, which supplies food companies such as Nestle and Hershey with cocoa and chocolate products, said on Tuesday that it had provided evidence to EFSA that eating 10g of dark chocolate or its equivalent in cocoa that were high in flavanols helped blood flow.

If the European Commission signs off on the EFSA ruling, the company and its customers would have the right to use the health claim on packaging for products such as chocolate drinks, cereal bars and biscuits, the company said.

“As the first company receiving such a health claim, we see new market potential both for us and for our customers,” Chief Executive Juergen Steinemann said in a statement.

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If  a chocolate craving hits you, go for dark chocolate with some yoghurt so that you get your dose of calcium and protein too.

Daily consumption of dark chocolate reduces risks of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, new research says.
Monash University researchers showed that dark chocolate’s blood pressure-and cholesterol-lowering qualities made it a cheap and tasty intervention strategy for a population at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study conducted by Ella Zomer, Christopher Reid, Alice Owen and Dianna Magliano from Monash department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and Danny Liew from Melbourne University shows that having dark chocolate daily could prevent 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people over a 10-year period.

Heart healthy foods

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Dark chocolate and wine provide the brain with a rush of oxygen and sugars making it function quickly.

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