Chocolate and Blood Pressure

Incredibly enough there is an article on chocolate and blood pressure that has been undertaken and has been subsequently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association regarding the lowering of blood pressure levels by eating the dark chocolate variety. Sounds too good to be true? That's what crossed my mind. The study says one bar of dark chocolate is enough to lower blood pressure and it also been found that it helps to improve the body's insulin resistance. (If you buy into this you could always buy ground chocolate online. Just Google or Yahoo it and you should find what you need.)

I can't help but wonder if the "chocolate lobby" in Washington DC didn't have something to do with that (actually one study was performed in Europe so that is inaccurate. Still, I question the one done in America). It is a well-known fact that eating too many calories, especially empty calories, contributes to weight gain. Many Americans are terribly overweight and chocolate, as much as I and everyone else loves it, is a contributer. Just one Hershey's candy bar has 300 calories with 180 of those calories coming from fat. The dark chocolate Hershey's candy bar has 180 calories with 110 coming from fat but it has 12 grams of fat! Well, that's my two cents worth, let's see what else they say.

They say that it has been discovered foods that are rich in flavinols are great for lowering blood pressure -- that's the basic premise and I think they're right. Flavinols are believed to be natural antioxidants (vitamins E and C are better). Yes, many take red wine, which is rich in resveratrol and Green Tea is rich in antioxidants, but this sounds like too bit of a stretch. But, I could be wrong. Let's continue.

There was a study carried out at the University of L’Aguila in Italy as well as America that was focused on finding ways of how to lower people’s blood pressure. So, they say that it wasn’t an accidental discovery. There were 20 people who participated in the study with the gender of the participants being equally divided (10 men and 10 women in other words). Their one common ailment was that they were all suffering from high blood pressure. The people taking part were not taking any prescribed, doctor mandated medications or following any treatments for to reduce their blood pressure levels. None suffered from any other diseases; none of them smoked either. In order too ensure that the experiment was correctly run they were asked to not have any chocolate for 2 weeks. (They were told to not buy ground chocolate online or elsewhere as well.)

They divided up the 20 into two groups. One group was asked to consume dark chocolate; the other group of 10 had to consume white chocolate and white chocolate only. The amount consumed daily was the same (approximately 3.5oz daily) and they ate it for 15 days. There was then break of a week during which time they were not to consume any flavinol foods during that week's respite. Then, the next week, the two groups swapped as to the type of chocolate they were to consume. In other words, those were eating white chocolate would eat the dark chocolate, and those eating the dark chocolate would eat the white chocolate). The study says white chocolate was the perfect control food for the study at the university as it contained all the same ingredients as the dark chocolate with the one exception of the flavinol. I don't dispute that.

Continuing, the study says there was a tangible lowering of the blood pressure in the group who consumed the dark chocolate for 15 days with no change in the group eating the white chocolate for the same period. The study found the treatment helped to lower blood pressure, and there was a reduction in insulin resistance of the group eating dark chocolate too. Also, researchers found cholesterol levels decreased in this group by 10% as well. This group thatwas eating the white chocolate showed no sign of either the blood pressure or cholesterol levels lowering. The study goes on to say that they stayed the same as at the inception of the study. Interesting.

In conclusion, the best way of lowering blood pressure is exercise and improving one's diet. And,removing all non-natural and medications from your diet. At least they say that this is to be the path and not just the eating of dark chocolate. In fact, the study researchers actually recommend that people eat a small bar of dark chocolate occasionally as it is rich in flavinols, which helps they believe to lower blood pressure. Actually cayenne pepper would be better to lower heart pressure but needless to say it is nowhere near as delicious as a chocolate bar. The study does convince me that an occasional bar isn't going to kill me but will actually do some good. I don't think, though, it should become a staple of my diet. But at least eating chocolate, and dark chocolate at that will not make me feel as guilty in the future.