Sunday, October 16, 2016

Want a healthy heart? Eat chocolate...

To its countless worshippers, chocolate is not just a delicious treat; it’s a lifestyle. So it helps to receive any confirmation whatsoever that it’s a healthy one. Brown University researchers have done their part, finding more evidence to bolster claims that compounds in cocoa are good for your cardiovascular system.

Their study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, analyzed information from controlled trials of more than 1,100 volunteers to determine whether consuming cocoa products containing compounds called flavanols improved certain biomarkers such as cholesterol levels and a person’s sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels.

“We found that cocoa flavanol intake may reduce dyslipidemia (elevated triglycerides), insulin resistance and systemic inflammation, which are all major subclinical risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases,” Dr. Simin Liu, a co-author and director of the Center for Global Cardiometabolic Health at Brown University, said in a statement from that institution.

The results were consistent whether the flavanols were consumed through dark chocolate or beverages made from powdered cocoa. In the university statement, lead author Xiaochen Lin warned against generalizing the results to include chocolate candies or white chocolates, because “the content of sugar/food additives could be substantially higher than that of the dark chocolate.” Full story...

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