Chocolate Has Sweet Effect On Health

Dr. Brian Buijsse believes chocolate consumption could improve health

This Washington Post story provides even more scientific evidence supporting the increased consumption of chocolate for your health.

Led by a nutritional epidemiologist at Wageningen University in The Netherlands named Dr. Brian Buijsse, the largest study of its kind on the health effects of cocoa beans followed 470 elderly men who were 65 years old and older in 1985 and were free from chronic disease at the matriculation of the study to determine the effects of cocoa-containing foods on the blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality of the participants.

Pulling information from those participants in the Zutphen Elderly Study, Dr. Buijsse and his team measured blood pressure levels at baseline and every five years after that over a 15-year period. The study participants' cocoa intake was estimated by chronicling the consumption of cocoa-containing foods, such as hot chocolate, pudding, and chocolate candy bars.

At the beginning of the study, 33 percent of the participants did not consume cocoa and the average cocoa intake among those who consumed chocolate regularly was a little over 2 grams per day.

The blood pressure of those men in the study who ate chocolate was lower than those who did not and the cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality rate was 50 percent lower among the cocoa-consuming men in the study.

The results of this study were published in the February 27, 2006 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

But Buijsse believes it is a bit premature to proclaim that chocolate consumption should be increased.

"It's way too early to make recommendations about whether people should eat more cocoa or chocolate," he said.

However, the main concerns regarding people eating more chocolate is that is could cause people to become obese, which leads to GREATER risk for heart disease and hypertension.

That's why I've got the perfect solution to this problem -- JUST EAT SUGAR-FREE CHOCOLATE!

While the chocolate manufacturers attempt to fool the consumer into believing they are making "healthy" versions of chocolate, the fact is even these chocolate bars still contain way too much sugar in them. Thankfully, though, some companies have figured out that all the goodness of chocolate can be made available for people to enjoy without inundating their bodies with waistline-expanding sugar that WILL lead them to getting fat!

That is why I support products such as ChocoPerfection chocolate bars because they give you all the best you want from a chocolate bar without all the guilt that is usually associated with the sugary versions. Yes, you can still have chocolate even when you are livin' la vida low-carb! Yeah, baby!

During my weight loss and even today, I eat my fair share of chocolate. What would life be WITHOUT chocolate?! Pretty boring if you ask me. Why fret over getting fat from chocolate when you can enjoy all the luscious, rich, and creamy taste and keep the obesity monster away by choosing sugar-free?! Living without chocolate is NOT an option for me.

A previous study confirmed the blood pressure-lowering effects of dark chocolate, but this new study proclaims that ALL chocolate products can produce the same positive results for your health. Makes you want to celebrate with a big bowl of low-carb chocolate ice cream with melted sugar-free chocolate drizzled on top, doesn't it?

I expect the companies that manufacture chocolate will jump all over this study and start touting the "healthy" benefits of their products.

But remember this: As long as they keep putting sugar in their chocolate, it's NOT a healthy option for you. Instead, you should make wise decisions about what you put in your mouth by selecting those chocolate bars that are sugar-free and low-carb to not only keep your blood pressure down, but to control your weight as well.

Incidentally, this study was supported by grants from the Netherlands Prevention Foundation.

You can e-mail Dr. Brian Buijsse to thank him for his research on the effects of chocolate on health at Brian.Buijsse@rivm.nl.