Scientists have repeatedly confirmed the health benefits of black (bitter) chocolate – as opposed to milk chocolate, which, as you know, is tasty, but harmful. The latest study adds one more thing to the previously obtained data – that dark chocolate is good for the heart and blood vessels, and especially … overweight people. Despite the fact that dark chocolate is rightfully considered a high-calorie product, its regular consumption in a limited amount – namely about 70 g per day – is recognized as beneficial.
Such data were published in a report in the scientific “Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology” (The FASEB Journal).
Scientists have found that the most useful is “raw” or “raw” chocolate, which is prepared according to a low-temperature recipe. In general, the more processed the original cocoa mass is (including bean roasting, fermentation, alkalization and other manufacturing processes), the fewer nutrients remain, and the less chocolate will bring health benefits, the experts found. Useful qualities, however, are largely preserved in regular, thermally processed, dark chocolate, which is sold in all supermarkets.
The experiment involved 44 overweight men aged 45-70 years. For two 4-week periods separated by time, they consumed 70 g of dark chocolate daily. At this time, scientists filmed all sorts of indicators of their health, in particular, the cardiovascular system.
Scientists have found that regular, moderate consumption of dark chocolate increases the flexibility of the arteries and prevents blood cells from sticking to the walls of the arteries – both factors significantly reduce the risk of vascular sclerosis.
Recall that according to previously obtained data, other useful properties of dark chocolate are as follows: • reduces the risk of heart attack in people with metabolic syndrome; • 37% reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and 29% – stroke; • helps restore normal muscle function in people who have had a heart attack or who have type XNUMX diabetes; • reduces damage to blood vessels in cirrhosis of the liver, and lowers blood pressure in it.
According to the results of the study, it is planned to create a special “chocolate” tablet containing all the beneficial substances of dark chocolate, only in a non-caloric form.
However, most likely, many will prefer this pill just to eat dark chocolate – it’s not only healthy, but also delicious!