Eating dark chocolate may keep heart healthy

Wed Oct 8, 2008 3:50pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating dark chocolate regularly may help lower levels of inflammation, which is strongly associated with heart and blood vessel disease, Italian researchers report.

"In an apparently healthy population, even a small reduction of a low-grade inflammation such as that associated in this study with regular consumption of dark chocolate might have clinically relevant benefits in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease," Dr. Romina di Giuseppe of Catholic University in Campobasso write in the current issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

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The benefits were seen when people ate up to one 20-gram serving of dark chocolate every 3 days, but eating more chocolate wasn't more beneficial; in fact, effects on CRP levels "tended to disappear" at higher consumption levels, the researchers found.

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