Eating dark chocolate has beneficial effects on vascular health. It improves the flexibility of the arteries while preventing atherosclerosis, confirms a recent study.
Dark chocolate is good for your heart, but especially for your arteries. This should reassure gourmets. These beneficial properties were already known, but now researchers know why dark chocolate helps you stay in shape. The results, published in the March edition of FASEB Journal, detail the benefits of this gluttony on several markers of arterial stiffness.
A team from Wageningen University (the Netherlands) followed 44 middle-aged (45-70 years) and overweight men. They consumed 70g of chocolate per day over two 4-week periods. Before and after consuming chocolate, researchers performed a battery test to measure indicators of vascular health. Two groups were formed: the first received a chocolate rich in flavonol, a chemical compound with antioxidant properties, the second a standard dark chocolate. Both types of chocolate had the same cocoa content.
The flavonol has nothing to do with it
There are two reasons why dark chocolate prevents strokes or diabetes: it restores the flexibility of the arteries and prevents the adhesion of white blood cells to the artery walls. These two factors are known to promote atherosclerosis. Several markers of inflammation are also reduced by the consumption of dark chocolate, with the same results in both groups. “We provide a more complete picture of the effects of chocolate consumption on vascular health, and we show that increasing the amount of flavonol has no additional beneficial effect. On the other hand, this increased quantity clearly affected the taste, and therefore the motivation to eat these chocolates, ”explains Dr Diederik Esser from Wageningen University (the Netherlands) and researcher involved in the study. The bitter taste of chocolates rich in flavonol actually reduced the desire to taste it in the participants.
“The effect of dark chocolate on our body is encouraging, not only because it allows us to indulge ourselves without feeling guilty, but also because it could lead to therapies with the same effect as dark chocolate with results. better and more consistent. However, as long as “dark chocolate medicine” has not been invented, we will have to do with what nature has given us! »Analyzes Dr Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of FASEB Journal.
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