A Little Chocolate May Be Good for You

(August 19, 2010) - Eating a little chocolate may be good for your heart. The key word here is - little. Middle-aged and elderly women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower risks of heart failure (Read about "Congestive Heart Failure"), in a study reported in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The nine-year study, conducted among 31,823 middle-aged and elderly women, looked at the relationship of the amount of high-quality chocolate the women ate, compared to their risk for heart failure. The quality of chocolate consumed by the women had a higher density cocoa content somewhat like dark chocolate by American standards. In this study, researchers found:

• Women who ate an average of one to two servings of the high-quality chocolate per week had a 32 percent lower risk of developing heart failure.
• Those who had one to three servings per month had a 26 percent lower risk.
• Those who consumed at least one serving daily or more didn't appear to benefit from a protective effect against heart failure.

The lack of a protective effect among women eating chocolate every day is probably due to the additional calories gained from eating chocolate instead of more nutritious foods, said Murrray Mittleman, M.D., Dr.P.H., lead researcher of the study.

"You can't ignore that chocolate is a relatively calorie-dense food and large amounts of habitual consumption is going to raise your risks for weight gain," said Mittleman. (Read about "Fighting Weight Gain") "But if you're going to have a treat, dark chocolate is probably a good choice, as long as it's in moderation."

High concentration of compounds called "flavonoids" in chocolate may lower blood pressure (Read about "Hypertension: High Blood Pressure"), among other benefits, according to mostly short-term studies. However, this is the first study to show long-term outcomes related specifically to heart failure, which can result from ongoing untreated high blood pressure.