What if the famous saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” also applies to dark chocolate? Researchers from the University of Surrey (United Kingdom) found, in a study published on June 13, 2022 in the scientific journal Frontiers in Nutrition, that high cocoa consumption could reduce the risk of high blood pressure, and this thanks to the high amount of flavanols it contains. Known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, flavanols are phytochemicals from the flavonoid subfamily. It can usually be found in grapes, apples and cocoa.
To carry out their work, the English scientists requested the participation of eleven healthy people. The latter had to consume, alternately, either six capsules of cocoa flavanol or six placebo capsules containing brown sugar. To study the link between cocoa consumption and high blood pressure, participants had to wear a blood pressure measuring device on their arm and a finger oximeter that measured the stiffness of their arteries.
The researchers then measured blood pressure before consuming the cocoa capsules and every 30 minutes after ingestion, then every hour for the remaining nine hours. Results ? The latter found that blood pressure and arterial stiffness decreased in (…)
(…) Click here to see more