Dark chocolate cuts heart deaths
Australian researchers have found that eating a block of dark chocolate daily over 10 years has “significant” benefits for high-risk cardiac patients and could prevent heart attacks and strokes.
A study of 2,013 Australians conducted at Melbourne’s Monash University found that the consumption of 3.5 ounces of chocolate with a 70 percent or higher cocoa content every day was an effective measure to reduce risk.
Lead researcher Ella Zomer said the team found 70 fatal and 15 non-fatal cardiovascular events per 10,000 people could be prevented over 10 years if patients at risk of having a heart attack or stroke ate dark chocolate.
“We’ve predicted significant health benefits of eating 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate every day over a 10-year period,” Zomer said of the study, published in the British Medical Journal.
“Our findings indicate dark chocolate therapy could provide an alternative to or be used to complement drug therapeutics in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Zomer’s research partner Chris Reid said measurements from the subjects, all of whom had classic risk factors such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol or body weight, were run through epidemiological modelling.
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