Its use reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease
Eating chocolate carries a lower risk of heart attack and stroke. It is certainly good news for all lovers of this sweet ingredient that sometimes gives us so many regrets to take, because of its high calorie content and its links to obesity. However, for some time it has been already talking about the benefits of chocolate, among which protects memory and, as they come and pointing out various publications, which benefits cardiovascular health.
Now, a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says that consume up to 100 grams of chocolate a day reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke. According to the researchers, compared with those not taking anything chocolate, they consumed the most had a 11% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and 23% less than a stroke.
Leandro Plaza, president of the Spanish Heart Foundation, this study shows that "within the foodstuff, chocolate is not harmful and that your digestion is probably beneficial, something that will be confirmed in the future more publications". However, this expert says the analysis BMJes an observational study, that is, "not designed to establish a comparison between two events, but through questionnaires," so that "we must take it with caution." Jaume Roquer, Board member of the group of vascular study of the Spanish Society of Neurology and Head of Neurology at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, believes that the ideal would "do a clinical trial in which a group you give chocolate and other non "to see the actual results and the effect of eating or not eating.
What is clear, says Plaza, and so also argue the authors of the publication, is that it makes no sense that a person who is in cardiovascular risk stop taking chocolate. "This is something that was done before, and not because he was supported in a scientifically rigorous truth, but because it was an indication that he had, as happened with the theme of the blue fish," says Plaza.
In view of the results published Tuesday, chocolate consumption is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, hospitalization due to these complications, stroke and death associated. These associations remained statistically significant after taking into account issues such as smoking, physical activididad and eating habits of 21,000 adult participants in research.
The value of flavonoids
The key, point in the publication, and as confirmed by the experts consulted by this newspaper, is not so much the chocolate itself, but in one of its main components: flavonoids, chemicals with antioxidant effects that also they are present in wine, olive oil or nuts. "It seems that are neuroprotective, which can improve cerebral blood flow, which increase cholesterol, and lower bad good, and protecting cardiovascular level and at the level of the Central Nervous System," says Roquer.
Although this study is the tonic of the already published about chocolate so far, it does yield something new, and that indicates that the benefits of this sweet not be reduced only to the black chocolate, as had dichoa up now- but they could also be extended to milk chocolate, usually considered less healthy than the black. "This could indicate that flavonoids not only protect cardiovascular level, but perhaps also other related act and milk, such as calcium and fatty acid compounds" can be read in the pages of the BMJ.
However, according Roquer, this would be the part of the study that more deberíamoscoger with tweezers: "I believe that this is an attempt to justify results that perhaps could not be explained otherwise, because precisely this really goes against everything that has been said so far. "
Source: www.elmundo.es/salud