Women around 70 who consumed chocolate at least once a week are 35 percent less likely to be put into hospital or die from heart disease, and almost 60 percent have a lesser risk of being hospitalized or dying, according to a study conducted by Australian researchers.
Experts say that the women did not need to eat large quantities of chocolate to benefit from it.
A study made by Italian researchers in 2008 also found that chocolate, in particular dark chocolate, helped with lower level inflammation which is typically associated with heart or blood vessel disease. A year before, food and drinks with high content of flavonoids – such as dark chocolate, red wine and apples – were found to protect women at their menopause from various heart affections, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
The latest study aimed at investigating further. Data was collected from 1216 women of older age, for almost 10 years, noting in how many cases heart disease was cause of hospitalization or death. The women estimated how much chocolate they were eating and how often. One dose was the equivalent of the cocoa in one cup of hot cocoa.
Approximately half of the women said they ate less than one dose per week. Almost 90 of those that ate chocolate on rare occasions were put in the hospital or died from heart problems, compared to 65 from the group that ate more chocolate. Comparing the infrequent consumers to those who ate chocolate at least once every week, researchers found that 35 in the first group had heart failure versus only 18 in the second group.
While the study did not make separate groups of daily and weekly consumers, they have followed individual evolutions as well and found that women in both groups were doing well. This led them to the preliminary conclusion that consumption of one dose per week would be enough to get benefits from chocolate.
Given increasing evidence on the benefits of chocolate, study authors say a clinical study would be the next logical step in testing for such benefits.
The authors of the study caution against eating foods with high sugar and fat contents. The study supports medical recommendations of moderate consumption of chocolate, they added.
