Chocolate leads to a healthier heart

Mt

Nov-Dec 2010

Chocolate leads to a healthier heart: study Older women who eat chocolate regularly are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, an Australian study shows.

Researchers in Perth found that women who ate chocolate were less likely to be hospitalised or die of atherosclerotic vascular disease than those who steered clear of it.

And they did not even need to overindulge to obtain the cardiovascular benefit, with similar benefits applying to those who ate chocolate only once a week and those who ate it daily, according to the study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

More than 1,200 women over 70 took part in the study and were tracked for a decade. Nearly half had less than one serving of chocolate a week, which was the equivalent amount of cocoa in one cup of hot chocolate.