Scientists in Great Britain have found that flavanols in cocoa and dark chocolate lower blood pressure and are therefore beneficial for the heart, the Daily Mail reported.
These antioxidants keep veins and arteries elastic. So the blood passes through them more easily.
Supplements with cocoa flavanols worked for volunteers in just three hours. Increasing the amount of dark chocolate may have a similar effect.
However, milk chocolate is not recommended because milk and sugar predominate in it, and cocoa can be as little as 25 percent. Dark chocolate can contain 90 percent cocoa.
The pills used in the study contained as much flavanols as half a kilogram of dark chocolate.
Flavanols are characteristic of fruits and vegetables. They are abundant in tea, red wine, blueberries, apples, pears, cherries, peanuts, and leafy greens. Cocoa beans are particularly rich in flavanols.
Scientists from the University of Surrey worked with 11 volunteers who took a cocoa capsule or a placebo every other day for almost two weeks.
Their daily life was as usual, but they wore a blood pressure monitor and a clip that measured the elasticity of the arteries.
The supplements did not lower blood pressure on days when it was already low.
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