Recent research has showed that chocolate can lower blood pressure and improve blood flow. Now, new research from a team led by Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm finds that heart attack survivors who eat chocolate a couple of times a week have three times the survival rate of those who don't eat chocolate.
Smaller amounts of chocolate were beneficial, too, but not to the same degree.
Researchers in this eight-year study found no benefit from eating sweets in general, but chocolate had impressive results. "Our findings support increasing evidence that chocolate is a rich source of beneficial bioactive compounds," the researchers reported in September issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine.
The recommendation: if you're going to eat dessert, make it chocolate.
