WANTED: CHOCOLATE WOMEN
fnbworld bureau/New Delhi
You are wanted by Scientists in the UK. They are looking for 150 women to eat chocolate everyday for their medical research, says a CNN report. The trial, at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, eastern England, will test whether a natural compound found in cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate could cut the risk of heart disease among women with diabetes.
A Belgian confectionist has created the special chocolate bar containing high levels of flavonoids - a plant compound that has been shown to reduce heart risk factors that will be used in the experiment. Soy, another natural source of flavonoids has also been added to the bar. Participants, who must be post-menopausal women under the age of 70, will have their risk of heart disease tested on five occasions during the year to see whether change occurs.
More studies are
concluding what we already know, that chocolate is
good for you. Yet, don’t get too excited. It
has to be good quality chocolate in small servings
and only a few times a week.
Chocolate lowers women's
heart risk
Meanwhile, a report in emaxhealth.com says the study from Harvard Medical School states that women who ate an average of one to two servings of high-quality chocolate per week had a 32 percent lower risk of developing heart failure.
Now you might think if
one to two servings weekly help 32% of the women
consuming this dark luscious candy, maybe one
should eat chocolate daily however, senior author
Dr Murray A Mittleman said, "Chocolate still comes
with a fair amount of calories from sugar and fat,
which can be problematic," he further stated, "We
controlled for total calorie intake, so that means
for women who were eating larger amounts of
chocolate, it was displacing other foods that
might be beneficial, such as fruits and
vegetables.”
It is important to note
that in Sweden, milk chocolate has a higher cocoa
concentration than dark chocolate sold in the
United States. Although 90 percent of all
chocolate eaten in Sweden during the study period
from 1998 to 2006 was milk chocolate, it contained
about 30 percent cocoa. U.S. standards require
only 15 percent cocoa to qualify as dark
chocolate. This means American chocolate may have
fewer heart benefits and more calories and fat for
equivalent servings.
Observational
studies have shown chocolate is associated with
reduced blood pressure, lower incidence of stroke
and myocardial infarction (MI), lower incidence of
deaths from coronary heart disease, and lower
cardiac mortality in patients surviving their
first MI, according to background information in
the report.
High
concentration of compounds called "flavonoids" in
chocolate may lower 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.
"However,
despite clinical trials showing the effect of
chocolate on blood pressure and the strong
relationship between blood pressure and heart
failure, no prior studies have examined the
association between chocolate intake and heart
failure," the authors noted.
"Those
tempted to use these data as their rationale for
eating large amounts of chocolate or engaging in
more frequent chocolate consumption are not
interpreting this study appropriately," said Linda
Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., immediate past chair of the
American Heart Association Nutrition Committee and
professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine
at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of
Medicine in Chicago.
"This is not an 'eat all you want' take-home message, rather it's that eating a little dark chocolate can be healthful, as long as other adverse behaviors do not occur, such as weight gain or excessive intake of non-nutrient dense 'empty' calories."
