Guest guest Posted July 20, 2005 Report Share Posted July 20, 2005 Message: 10 Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:25:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Al Pater <old542000@...> Subject: Dark chocolate lowers blood pressure Hi All, Dark chocolate seems to lower blood pressure, a publication appears to say in Hypertension, according to: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/07/19/heart.chocolate.reut/index.html The pdf is not yet available. --Holy moly: For 15 days, half ate a daily 3.5 ounce (100 gram) bar of specially formulated, flavonoid-rich dark chocolate, while the other half ate the same amount of white chocolate. Then each group " crossed over " and ate the other chocolate. " White chocolate, which has no flavonoids, was the perfect control food because it contains all the other ingredients and calories found in dark chocolate, " Blumberg said. " It's important to note that the dark chocolate we used had a high level of flavonoids, giving it a slightly bittersweet taste. Most Americans eat milk chocolate, which has a low amount of these compounds. " Writing in the journal Hypertension, Blumberg's team said when the volunteers ate the special dark chocolate, they had a 12 mm Hg decrease in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and a 9 mm Hg decrease in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) on average. Blood pressure did not change when the volunteers ate white chocolate. " This is not only a statistically significant effect, but it's also a clinically meaningful decline, " Blumberg said. " This is the kind of reduction in blood pressure often found with other healthful dietary interventions. " Eating dark chocolate also seemed to improve how the body used insulin, and reduced low density lipoprotein (LDL) or " bad " cholesterol by about 10 percent on average. --Guess what I'm starting in with this evening, likely forever (the sacrifices we must make in the name of enhanced nutrition . . . )? Maco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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