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Eating about 30 calories a day of dark chocolate was associated with a lowering of blood pressure without weight gain or other adverse effects.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Catholic Online) - Here is a recent letter I received along with my answer for our readers:

Dear Dr Denton,

Easter Sunday was beautiful but what do I do with the excess amounts of chocolate eggs and bunnies left over waiting to fatten me up?

Dear Chocolate bunny lover from Nebraska,

Do not despair we all enjoyed the Great Feast of Our Lord’s Resurrection in many ways. The majority of us at the end of Passover and beginning of the Easter Celebration indulged in a little chocolate joy. First, let me share a little history for those of us who are chocolate lovers. Between 1500 and 300 B.C. the Olmec Indians of Central America began harvesting and using cocoa “kawkawa”. The culture and traditions of the cocoa were passed on to the Mayan civilization including “xocoatl,” (sho-KWA-til). Xocoatl was and is a crushed cocoa drink which was consumed by the Mayan leaders around 300 B.C. – 500 A.D.

The Mayan culture extended the cocoa reign to the Aztec world as a form of currency between 600 – 1000 A.D. Both the Mayan and the Aztec civilizations used the cocoa as a raw bitter drink for medicinal and ritual purposes. They felt the powerful drink gave the gift of health and vitality. They were right. Wow talk about an antioxidant superfood! Christopher Columbus brought cocoa to Spain in 1492, and the King and Queen were not impressed with the ugly oval shaped pods. On or about 1527 Cortez conquered the Aztec empire and brought cacao beans, equipment and recipes for preparing chocolate from Mexico to the Spanish court of King Charles V. Spanish monasteries became the processing grounds for the cocoa beans to keep the chocolate techniques a secret for nearly another century. Ah yes and like many secrets they slipped out and the rest is history …. That is World Wide Chocolate Bliss.

OK. OK… on to the research…. Boring but Vital! Remember that antioxidants are scavengers which protect your body. They in essence help prevent cancer and other diseases by playing a roll in the destruction/neutralization of free radicals which damage the body if not balanced. According to a study published April 2007 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers from the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany compared the results of 10 different studies dating from 1966 to 2006, five examining the effects of cocoa on blood pressure, and five examining the effects of tea. Both cocoa and tea are high in plant compounds called flavonoids (antioxidant), which prior studies have linked to reduced cholesterol levels and blood clotting risk. The cocoa studies lowered the blood pressure an average of 4.7/2.8 mmHg. This level of blood pressure reduction has the potential to reduce the risk of stroke by 20%, coronary heart disease by 10%, and premature death by 8%.

In an article published in 2008 Journal of Nutrition, dark chocolate bars were found to decrease cholesterol and systolic blood pressure. In this double-blinded study, the participant ate two dark chocolate bars, CocoVia, each day for four weeks. The study was funded in part by Mars Inc. and they also supplied the dark chocolate bars. Plant sterols and cocoa are thought to be the component of the bars which lead to these results. Eating about 30 calories a day of dark chocolate was associated with a lowering of blood pressure without weight gain or other adverse effects, according to a study in the July 2007 issue of JAMA. Dirk Taubert, M.D., Ph.D., of University Hospital of Cologne, Germany and colleagues feel the cocoa polyphenols, a group of chemical substances found in plants, such as the flavanols (antioxidant), are believed to be beneficial to health, and are thought to be the the blood pressure lowering component of cocoa.

Alan Crozier, a biomedical scientist at Glasgow University published and article in Nature which looked at the levels of antioxidants - known to be beneficial to health - in the bloodstream after ingestion of chocolate and milk. In the study, 100 grams of plain chocolate was given to one group of volunteers, 200g of milk chocolate to another and 100g of plain chocolate and a glass of milk to a third. Levels of antioxidants in the blood plasma rose by 18 per cent in those who ate dark chocolate on its own. The effect, however, does not happen when people eat milk chocolate, or plain chocolate with a glass of milk. Milk appears to slow the absorption of antioxidants. SOOOOOOOO DON’T have MILK with your evening dark chocolate…… Maybe a small glass of champagne?

Finally and probably most interesting is the phenomenon of chocolate processing. High temperatures used in the processing of chocolate decreases the amount of antioxidants passed from the raw cocoa to the final chocolate. As much as we like Dutch Chocolate the process requires further heating and processing of the cocoa. The flavor is wonderful but the health benefits decrease. ...