Need more reason to eat chocolate this Valentine's Day weekend? Here's one:
Canadian researchers have found that eating a little bit of chocolate each week
may lower the risk of having a stroke.
What's more, it may also decrease the odds of dying from one.
Researchers form McMaster University in Hamilton have reviewed three studies on
chocolate and stroke and say two of them suggest that chocolate might lower the
risk of stroke.
The first study, from 2007, looked at more than 34,000 postmenopausal women as
part of the Iowa Women's Health Study. It noted that those who ate one serving
of chocolate per week were 22 per cent less likely to have a stroke than people
who ate no chocolate.
The second study showed that 1,169 people in Sweden who ate 50 grams of
chocolate (about the size of the average chocolate bar) once a week were 46 per
cent less likely to die after a stroke compared to people who didn't.
A
third study included in the review found no link between chocolate and risk of
death from stroke.
Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids.
Previous research has suggested those compounds, which are also found in
vegetables, tea and red wine, have a number of health benefits, including its
actions as an anti-inflammatory.
McMaster researcher Sarah Sahib said more research would be needed to determine
whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are
simply more likely to eat chocolate than others.
Neurologist Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, who worked with Sahib, notes that chocolate
can also be dangerous to cardiovascular health.
"Eating too much chocolate can make you fat as chocolate also contains saturated
fats," he told The Telegraph in England.
Saposnik also noted that future studies need to address which component in
chocolate, the amount, and which kind — white, milk or dark — might be
beneficial to heart and vascular health.
The results of the review will be presented in April at the annual meeting of
the American Academy of Neurology in Toronto.
Source : CTV News
