Eat dark chocolate - but only 6 grams a day!

Good news for chocolate lovers: A new research has found that eating a small amount of dark chocolate (about 30 calories – 6 grams) every day may lower blood pressure.

A new research included 44 adults between the ages of 56 and 73 who either had prehypertension (between 130/85 and 139/89) or stage 1 hypertension (between 140/90 and 160/100). None of them had other risk factors such as overweight or diabetes.

22 of the group consumed 30 calories of dark chocolate containing polyphenols (an antioxidant) every day, for 18 days. The other half ate the same amount of white chocolate (that has no polyphenols).

After 18 days, the dark chocolate eaters showed an average 2.9 mmHg drop of systolic blood pressure, and a 1.9 mm Hg drop of diastolic blood pressure. In the "white chocolate eaters" group there was no change in blood pressure.

The research was led by Dr. Dirk Taubert, of University Hospital of Cologne. The German researchers claim that the clinical results are noteworthy even though Blood Pressure reduction was small.

The study was published in the July 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association