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Is Chocolate Really Heart-Healthy?
 

Who don’t like chocolate? When we are presented with a box of chocolate, it is extremely difficult for us to resist eating.

But most of the time, we just have to forgo it because indulging in chocolate could make us fat. Once our body weight increases, we are likely to become victims of various diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and Type-2 diabetes.

Recently, researchers from Norwich Medical School in the United Kingdom reported in the March 2012’s issue of ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’ that people who ate chocolate or cocoa for a few weeks to months had small drops in their blood pressure and improved blood vessel function.

This seems to be a piece of good news for chocolate lovers but this is definitely not the first study to highlight the heart-healthy benefit of chocolate. In fact, several previous studies had already found that people who ate chocolate might have a lower rate of certain heart risks such as high blood pressure. Unfortunately, the findings from these so-called observational studies could not prove cause-and-effect. People who ate chocolate in those studies might also have other factors that can benefit their heart health.

The new study combined results of 42 small clinical trials involving 1,297 people. In clinical trials, people were randomly assigned by the researchers to eat chocolate. These people were then observed for changes in blood pressure, cholesterol and other heart risk factors.

It was found that chocolate eaters, on average, had a lower blood pressure and shown a small improvement in flow-mediated dilation, which is a measure of how well the blood vessels respond to increased blood flow. The participants also had a reduction in their levels of insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar. People with high insulin level are likely candidates of Type-2 diabetes.

While improvements found in the study might suggest chocolate have some benefits, researchers cautioned that all the studies they analyzed were small and had their flaws. None of the studies had been large or long enough to show if there was any effect on a person’s risk of heart disease or stroke.

The approach used in the new research is known as meta-analysis that allows researchers to draw conclusions based on bigger numbers, and it has shortcoming.

First of all, each of the trials was different. The types of participants were different: some involved healthy people while others examined people with chronic health problems such as diabetes or heart disease. The methods of testing chocolate’s effects differed among various studies. Meanwhile, different kinds of chocolate, including cocoa drinks, solid chocolate and even cocoa supplements, were used. All the studies also varied in how long people were treated and most trials lasted less than 6 weeks.

Secondly, it is unclear how chocolate would be heart-healthy. Most experts believe flavonoids are responsible for the benefit, yet they have not been adequately tested to see whether they are actually effective ways to protect the heart. Even if they are, there is lack of information available to consumers for the level of flavonoids in a specific chocolate product.

Also, there is a range of foods that contains various flavonoids. These include fruits like berries, citrus and apples, vegetables such as kale, spinach and broccoli, and nuts, soy, tea and wine.

Until the emergence of any new findings, it is fine and might be beneficial for people who like ‘dark’ chocolate to eat a little. But, this does not suggest that all people should start eating chocolate to prevent heart disease. Bear in mind that eating chocolate means several hundred calories must go into the body and this can easily increase the waistline.

Researchers hope that larger and longer-term trials including ones not funded by the cocoa industry should be carried out to examine whether eating chocolate is an effective way for heart disease prevention.

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