Chocolate and Blood Pressure Reduction

Chocolate
and Blood Pressure Reduction

Now that the excitement and hype in 2005 about chocolate and blood pressure reduction has boiled down to a simmer, have there been any more significant findings about chocolate and health that will turn up the heat again? Let us remind ourselves what exactly was said back in 2005 on chocolate and blood pressure reduction.

Jeffrey B. Blumberg, a senior scientist and a professor of nutrition made remarkable statements following his research results. He said, “We found that three ounces of dark chocolate per day over several weeks reduced blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension (the common type of blood pressure that is raised for no apparent reason) and also seemed to provide a benefit on their insulin sensitivity.

So the facts are if we eat some dark chocolate, high blood pressure will be reduced.

Let`s enlighten ourselves further with the true facts.

Previous Tests and Their Results on Chocolate and Blood Pressure Reduction

The test he had carried out comprised of 10 women and 10 men diagnosed with high blood pressure, who were not taking any kind of medication for it. They were to given chocolate to eat for 15 days, and were divided into 2 groups of 10, with 5 men and 5 women in each group.

In one group, each person was given 3.5 oz. of dark chocolate to eat each day for 15 days, while the other group ate white. They stopped the chocolate eating for a week, then they resumed with the first group changing to white chocolate, while the other had dark.

His findings on this chocolate and blood pressure reduction test concluded that in the 15 days that each group ate the dark chocolate containing flavanoids, their systolic blood pressure dropped by 11.9 mm Hg, and their diastolic 8.5 mm Hg. Both groups never saw any changes in their systolic and diastolic readings when they were eating the white chocolate, which contains no flavanoids.

Blumberg commented on these findings by saying, “Dark chocolate can be included as part of a healthful diet in patients who have hypertension.”

Another professor, Dr. David L. Katz, a clinical professor of public health and director of the prevention research centre at Yale University School of Medicine agreed with the results on chocolate and blood pressure reduction. He went on to extensively research the subject further.

Things were looking good! What did he conclude?

One hurdle that could have put a spanner in the works, was that chocolate although showing up as having health benefits on a short term basis, may not prove to be healthy in the long run. Chocolate contains fat, and are we not told that too much fatty food will raise cholesterol and body weight, which would only contribute to the problem?

Dr. Katz` research on chocolate and blood pressure reduction had it “sorted”. He found that stearic acid is the predominant saturated fat in dark chocolate and doesn’t raise the level of cholesterol in the blood. With half the problem now solved, we are just left with the question of weight gain.

Chocolate and Cocao and Antioxidants

In his tests he listed which nutrients, dark chocolate and cocao, or cocoa, contained. They are :

Flavenoids (powerful and potent antioxidants)

Fibre

Magnesium

Arginine

Caffeine

Theobromine

The ingredients all have a bearing on the lowering of blood pressure.

Here in England we have not heard the latest news from America on chocolate and blood pressure reduction. At least I haven’t anyway, only what I found surfing the net. It seems to me that there is a little bit of “Easter Fever” going on. Did you see lots of chocolate eggs and boxes of chocolates in the shops this Easter, highlighting the ingredient Polyphenol? I wonder?

Dr. Katz has more to say about the recent assumptions being made in the news headlines. The picture being painted is not quite what went on in the lab with Dr. Katz` patients. They weren’t given marshmallows covered in milk chocolate to eat. It was DARK chocolate with a cocoa content of 60% or more. Download and read it for yourself on Dr. Katz own website under the subheading, Chocolate: Dark Truths, White Lies. The chocolate he used in his chocolate and blood pressure reduction tests was sugar free, with 50 calories less per 8oz, than the chocolate that we normally indulge in, milk or white with a lot of sugar content.

For those of us who like to get the facts right, the latest on this subject of chocolate and blood pressure reduction is summarised from a survey carried out on the literature of German researchers based on 10 selected studies on Cocoa. Some of the points brought out were as follows :

Based on their analysis, regular consumption of polyphenol-rich cocoa products like dark chocolate may be considered a part of a blood pressure-lowering diet, provided there is no total gain in calorie intake, however, in the studies they reviewed for the survey, the blood pressure results occurred with cocoa doses above the habitual intake and were observed only in the setting of short-term interventions.

They also noted an important result which we welcome in connection with chocolate and blood pressure reduction. The average reduction noted was 4 to 5 mm Hg in systolic pressure and 2 to 3 mm Hg in diastolic pressure, which is enough to reduce the risk of stroke by 20 percent and of coronary heart disease by 10 percent. Yyyyessss! You can tell I like chocolate, can’t you?

Chang Y. Lee, chairman of the department of food science and technology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. recommended the occasional cup of cocoa, but he was never-the-less, cautious about people taking chocolate milk, because it is high in sugar and high in fat.