There’s a reason I picked out Hershey’s Special Dark With Almonds from all the goodies at Hersheypark this weekend. Dark Chocolate May Have Benefit:
Thirteen adults with untreated mild hypertension got to eat 3-ounce chocolate bars every day for two weeks. Half of the patients got white chocolate, half got dark chocolate.Dark chocolate contains plant substances called polyphenols — ingredients scientists think are responsible for the heart-healthy attributes of red wine. Polyphenols also have been shown to lower blood pressure in animals.
Blood pressure remained pretty much unchanged in the group that ate white chocolate, which does not contain polyphenols. But after two weeks, systolic blood pressure — the top number — had dropped an average of five points in the dark-chocolate group. The lower, or diastolic, reading fell an average of almost two points.
The participants had an average blood pressure reading of about 153 over 84.