A dark chocolate a day keeps the cardiologist away!

A dark chocolate a day keeps the cardiologist away!

A recent study published in ‘Circulation’ suggests that eating dark chocolate can decrease your risk for heart attack.

Heart attack is caused by blockage in the blood vessels supplying the heart. High oxidative stress and limited availability of antioxidants lead to the damage of the blood vessels, leading to increased chances for a blood clot. But dark chocolates (which contain 70% cocoa) have lots of flavonoids – potent antioxidants which helps to overcome the oxidative stress present in our body. They also decrease the activation of blood platelets – the blood cells responsible for blood clotting. The study which was conducted by a team of scientists in Switzerland, found that within two hours of eating 40g dark chocolate, the size of the coronary blood vessels increased by 6%.

Can’t you get more flavonoids from other foods? – you may ask. But the fact remains that dark chocolate contains greater amounts of flavonoids than any other food like green tea and blueberries. And companies have perfected their techniques for the preparation of dark chocolate that up to 95% of flavonoids are preserved!

And before you reach out for that delicious dark bar, here’s something that you should remember – Although eating some of it is good for the heart, it’s still full of calories. So you’ve got to cut down on some other food stuffs.