Dark Chocolate Heart Healthy ... in Moderation

July 3, 2007 — -- Chocolate-lovers can take heart in the candy aisles, as it seems just a little bit of the dark, sweet stuff can help lower blood pressure.

A new study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that a small dose of dark chocolate lowers blood pressure without causing weight gain.

"We found that it's good to eat small amounts of dark chocolate every day on a regular basis," says lead study author Dr. Dirk Taubert, professor at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany.

Taubert and his research team doled out daily "doses" of either white chocolate or dark chocolate to 44 adults with slightly high blood pressure, between 130/85 and 160/100. Normal blood pressure is commonly thought to be around 120/80 -- or a systolic of 120 and a diastolic of 80.

The amount -- 6.3 grams -- was equal to the size of one Hershey's kiss, or about half a square in a chocolate bar, and contained about 30 calories.

The participants had their blood pressure monitored for 18 weeks.

The group that ate the dark chocolate reduced its systolic (top number) blood pressure by 2.9, and its diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure by 1.9. The participants who ate the white chocolate saw no such benefits.

Taubert says, "At first glance, a decrease of two or three points may be very small, but if everyone would experience a reduction of blood pressure in this range, you would have a reduction of coronary artery disease mortality of 5 percent, and this is clinically relevant."

Scientists have known for some time that cocoa polyphenols, the substance that gives dark chocolate its characteristic bitter taste, can affect blood pressure. But this was the first time that a small dose was studied.

"The problem was we previously only assessed the impact in large doses -- one bar per day -- over a short time," says Taubert. "Therefore, we conducted a more relevant study with very low amounts of chocolate --