Dark, Sweet and Healthy
Chocolate connoisseurs indulge yourselves -- or not.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine believe they may have found the first biochemical explanation for eating chocolate every day. A few squares of chocolate daily may cut the risk of a heart attack in some men and women by 50 percent. How? By decreasing the tendency of platelets to clot in narrow blood vessels, similar to the effect of a daily dose of aspirin. But only dark chocolate will work because it's rich in flavonoids and has been known to lower blood pressure. These latest findings were presented at the November 2006 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.
This finding is not “a prescription to gobble up large amounts of chocolate candy,” cautions Diane Becker, M.P.H., Sc.D., one of the researchers in the study. The prescription actually calls for about two tablespoons of dark chocolate in its purest form, made from dried extract of roasted cocoa beans.
Ooh, how sweet it is!