Chocolate is good for you

Tiffany is a big fan of dark chocolate. News like this makes her happy.

Eating dark chocolate can improve healthy blood flow and prevent clots forming in the veins, an international heart congress has heard.

But the same benefits might not be gained from eating milk chocolate.

[...]

Blood clots, depending on where they form can lead to thrombosis, embolism, stroke, heart attack and angina.

Dr Charalambos Vlachopoulos, of the Hippokratian Hospital at the University of Athens, who presented the research, said that eating 100 grams of dark chocolate improved function in healthy young adults for at least three hours.

The study involved 17 volunteers who ate either 100 grams of dark chocolate or a non-chocolate substitute. On another day the groups were swapped over.

The results showed that functioning of the endothelium, a thin layer covering the innermost surface of blood vessels, was improved in the dark chocolate group but not in the group that ate the chocolate substitute.

How does one get to be a volunteer for this kind of study? Luck, or connections?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 30, 2004 to Food, glorious food | TrackBack