Chocolate helps lower high blood pressure....

Today's post: Thursday, 7-3-2008

We’ve posted before on how dark chocolate & unsweetened cocoa have been shown to lower high blood pressure & increase blood flow.

We’ve posted that this only works if you eat or drink the chocolate without milk.

And, we’ve posted that the effect of the unsweetened coca is greater than the dark chocolate. (Apparently, the added fat & sugar in the dark chocolate candy slightly interfere with the effect. The effect still happens but not quite as strongly.)

Kelley Herring is an expert on nutrition for good health & recipes containing OK & health beneficial foods.

She writes for the health section of Early to Rise & for its Total Health Breakthroughs also.

I checked out her website & found an article on the health effects of dark chocolate & unsweetened coca.

I liked it enough that I’ve reprinted it here.

If you like it or want new ideas for recipes containing OK & health beneficial foods, by all means check out her website.: http://www.healinggourmet.com/

Here’s the article:

“A Sweet Way to Lower Blood Pressure More benefits of decadent dark cocoa

More good news for chocoholics: dark chocolate, a good source of powerful antioxidant phenols can help reduce blood pressure.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association included six men and seven women aged 55-64 with mildly high blood pressure. On average, the participant’s systolic blood pressure (the top number) was 153 and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) was 84.

Every day for two weeks, the study participants ate a 100-gram piece of dark chocolate. They balanced its hefty 480 calories by not eating other foods similar in nutrients and calories. Half of the participants received dark chocolate, while half got white chocolate.

At the end of the study, those who ate dark chocolate saw a significant drop in blood pressure (by an average of 5 points for systolic and 2 points for diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate experienced no benefit.

To enjoy the health benefits and delicious flavor of dark chocolate, you don't need to eat a 480 calorie candy bar. In fact, 1 tablespoon of dark cocoa has a mere 80 calories, with all of the chocolatey goodness and health benefits.”

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This shows a definite but small effect on lowering high blood pressure.

And it explains why it may be best to use unsweetened cocoa a good bit more often than dark chocolate candy. You not only take less calories, you take in less sugar. Both of these things help you get the health effect without becoming fatter if you mostly use the unsweetened cocoa.

For more things that lower high blood pressure without drugs, see our post for this coming Monday.

And, keep reading our blog. Within a few weeks, we will announce an eBook on how to lower high blood pressure without drugs listing the most effective things that do this & many others.