Dark Chocolate Lowers Heart Attacks

Dark chocolate may lower risk of heart attacks, strokes.
Bloomberg News (3/31, Cortez) reports that, according to a study published March 31 in the European Heart Journal, "a daily nibble of dark chocolate may slash the risk of heart attacks and strokes by more than one-third." In "a study of 20,000 middle-aged" people, investigators from the German Institute of Human Nutrition "tracked participants for a decade to unravel the ties between chocolate and heart disease, and unexpectedly found the biggest benefit lay in warding off strokes."
The researchers "found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day -- or about one square of a chocolate bar -- had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke," the AP (3/31, Cheng) reports. "Experts think the flavonols contained in chocolate are responsible."
According to WebMD (3/30, Warner), "people who ate the most chocolate also had blood pressure that was about one point systolic" and "0.9 point diastolic...lower than people who ate the least amount of chocolate."